Is your kitty a cranky cat? Is she a finicky eater? Seems she is missing something important, and perhaps she is. That would be the “sweet tooth” the rest of us (including most mammals) take for granted. Without being able to enjoy a sweet treat now and then, it’s no wonder they can feel so cranky at times.

Seriously, a research team studying taste and smell receptors in mammals has now found that cats are genetically missing the gene necessary to taste sweets. Most mammals have sweet taste receptors, which are created by combining two proteins – one of which cats are missing.

They do, though, prefer their food warm – at about 86?, the same temperature as their tongue. This temperature tends to engage their sense of smell, rather than taste, and strongly engages their appetitethe smellier, the better! (Try heating Kitty’s food to intensify the aroma if she is not eating well.)

When compared to humans, the cat’s sense of taste is weak. We have 9,000 taste buds, while they have only 473. Regardless of what Disney represents in their animated tales of dogs and cats, it appears they’ll never appreciate the subtle and intimate mingled flavors of exquisite gourmet foods.

Dogs have more than three times as many taste buds than cats, at 1706, but still can’t compete with man in the gourmet department. We do know, though, that dogs usually like foods with strong sweet or salty flavors – especially those that are prohibited to them.

Smell:

The cat’s sense of smell, not vision, is its primary resource for identifying the individuals and objects in its environment. The cat’s visual acuity is 10 times less then that of humans. But in their noses, they bear 200 million odor-sensitive cells, compared to only 5 million for humans.

Dogs, depending on breed, have as many as 220 million olfactory (smell) receptors in their noses – more than 40 times as many as humans. These receptors occur in special sniffing cells deep in a dog’s snout, and are what allow a dog to reign as “king” in the smell department.

Smells, for the cat, not only tell the animal what something is and where it is located, but also play an important part in distinguishing territory. Cats mark objects either by urine-spraying (which is usually preventable if the cat is neutered early enough) or by secreting scents from glands in their cheeks and paws as a way of leaving their scent behind to show “ownership.” That’s why they rub around your legs and all the furniture in the house. You’ve become “owned” by your cat (as if you didn’t already know it!).

Dogs can sense odors at concentrations nearly 100 million times lower than humans can. They can detect one drop of blood in five quarts of water! Specially trained dogs are also remarkable in their ability to sort out smells by sniffing where nothing appears to be. While sniffing an apparently bare sidewalk may seem a bit goofy to you, it can yield a wealth of information to your dog.

Sight:

No, cats cannot see in complete darkness. That idea is myth. But because of a part of the cat’s retina called the tapetum lucidum – which acts like a reflector in the eye and bounces light to the back of the retina – cats can see quite well in extremely low light.

But this ability comes at the expense of daytime vision. In fact, cats are relatively shortsighted in daylight and see things somewhat blurry. They do, however, have the ability to detect the slightest movement. Felines also have great depth perception, enabling them to judge distances much better than humans. Still, overall, the sight sense is near the bottom of the cat’s cognitive abilities.

With dogs, even though we have heard that they see only in black and white, science has confirmed that they are capable of distinguishing colors and have a very sophisticated visual capacity; especially when it comes to night vision. Overall, their sight is partially dependent on the breed and where the eyes are located on their snout. Those with a long nasal passage are capable of 180-degree vision, making them capable of noticing any movement in their vicinity, even at hundreds of feet away.

Sound:

A cat’s hearing is its sharpest sense. Felines can perceive the slightest noise and accurately judge where it’s coming from. They can hear sounds three times better than humans can.

The cat’s ears are fairly large, relative to its head size, and can rotate to enable it to capture sounds more accurately. You will see them sometimes pause while chasing prey to listen and determine its location.

Dogs also have a well-developed, sharp sense of hearing, even at distances of 25 meters, being able to identify perfectly the sound and where it comes from. Comparatively, humans have a very short range of hearing.

Perhaps that’s why the sound and tone of our voice is so important to them. And, whether cat or dog, the more they get to know us, the more crucial the sound of our voice becomes in their world.

So, where does that leave us? Seems that our four-legged companions are able to out-see, out-hear, and out-smell us. They complement our advanced ability to appreciate the different flavors in gourmet foods and the ability to follow cognitive avenues of thinking.

Thus they are well equipped to care for us. Once we train them to bring us our daily food, using their superior senses, we can all retire and allow our animals to earn their keep by keeping us. All we have to do is find a way to teach them to cook and clean after the hunt, then our current companions can become our caretakers and we can all relax and become finicky eaters. All they need (I’m told) is to grow opposing thumbs and learn how to use them…

Wish list – Shelter needs:

This week our Wish List includes:

Cat Litter! (Clay litter such as Johnny Cat).

Dry dog food (Our chow hounds prefer Petagree, Attaboy, and Kirkland)

Computer ink cartridges – or a refill system – for an HP DeskJet 697c or an HP psi2110xi (and any empty cartridges from any printer that we can recycle).

We are a community-supported Shelter and depend on your contributions to keep our doors open. Thank you so much for caring!

Contact information

The South Pacific County Humane Society Animal Shelter is at 330 2nd Street NE, next to the County buildings in downtown Long Beach, phone 642-1180. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 101, Long Beach, WA 98631. Web site: www.beachpets.com. E-mail: humane@reachone.com. We’re open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. (Additional summer hours: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays.) Closed Mondays. Monthly meetings, open to the public, are at 5:30 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month. We are proud to be a No Kill Shelter!