Do Cats Actually Have 9 Lives?

All of us love our cats. They is perhaps grumpy creatures that will knock issues over round the home, nestle and curl up on our laps after we’re down, and typically even after we’re busy!

We wish to suppose they might at all times be there for us since they’ve 9 lives, proper? However, sadly, this isn’t the case.

As a lot as we would like our feline companions’ 9 lives to be true, it’s a fantasy. Really heartbreaking, we all know.

This begs the query, the place did this fantasy begin? Let’s break it down, and perhaps we will discover solace within the details.

The legend of the cat’s 9 lives.

Nobody is aware of who began the parable of the 9 lives of cats, and there are not any precise historic recordings of when and the place it was first created both.

Such is the difficulty with oral historical past.

What is thought, although, is that the primary point out of the cat’s 9 lives is in an English proverb that states: “A cat has 9 lives. For 3, he performs; for 3, he strays; for the final three, he stays.”

The proverb’s origins would possibly stay a thriller, however we now have an estimated timeline on the very least.

In certainly one of William Shakespeare‘s most well-known performs, Romeo and Juliet, he wrote: “Good king of cats, nothing however certainly one of your 9 lives.”

The bard wrote the tragedy within the 16^th century, making the parable of a cat’s 9 lives predate the 1500s.

Why do cats have 9 lives? 

Our feline associates are identified to be very agile animals; they’re fiercely impartial and clever creatures.

They will fall from excessive elevations and nonetheless land on their ft. There’s even a documented case in New York the place a cat fell from a 32-story constructing and survived, struggling solely minor accidents.

Feats like this are probably the place the thought of cats having 9 lives got here from. That is all because of the cat’s improbable anatomy, after all.

Like most feline species, cats developed from residing in timber.

The years of evolution earlier than they turned domesticated ensured that they tailored to the peak from the place their species began residing.

Cats have a “righting reflex” the place they will twist their our bodies as they fall, making certain that they securely land on their ft.

Their massive physique floor space reduces the drive of the autumn.

On the similar time, the spectacular flexibility of their ligaments and bones helps them maintain as minimal damage from the affect as potential.

So, you’ll be able to say {that a} cat’s 9 lives come from tens of millions of years of evolution.

Why is it particularly 9 lives?

We at all times requested why and the way cats have 9 lives however have you ever ever thought why an odd quantity like 9 precisely? Let’s discover out.

Numerology states that the quantity 9 may be very vital due to its composition of three teams of three.

In non secular cultures like Islam, Greek, and Roman Catholic, the quantity 9 is symbolic and has mystical properties.

For instance, in Islam, the importance of the quantity 9 is very similar to within the Indian considered Sanatana Dharma, which states, “9 openings for man as additionally the 9 months of gestation interval of beginning.”

In Greece, the quantity 9 has been known as the trinity of trinities, just like numerology’s composition.

What’s extra fascinating, although, is in numerous cultures, the parable of the cat’s 9 lives has totally different variations, particularly with their variety of lives.

Some areas round Spain consider that cats solely have seven lives, whereas in different Arabic and Turkish legends, cats have six lives.

All this fascination with cats goes manner again about 12,000 years in the past.

The traditional Egyptians believed these animals have been sacred and divine beings with supernatural powers.

Folks would usually dedicate mummified cats on the sanctuary of the cat goddess Bastet as choices.

To sum all of it up, no, cats don’t have 9 lives, irrespective of how a lot we might need them to.

Our feline compatriots are inclined to cheat loss of life although that doesn’t imply we shouldn’t be taking additional care of them, irrespective of how snobbish they will typically be.

They could even be godlike creatures worshipped all through historical past, and that’s why they like lording themselves round our home like they personal the place!