Label: Cats

February 23, 2011

Seymour Simon has cats on his mind, and he wants to know if you can find this little known fact: WHAT DO YOU CALL A GROUP OF CATS?

Hint: Seymour has written about this somewhere on the Seymour Science blog.

Prize: Post your comment here, and one person who has given the right answer will be selected in a random drawing to win a personally autographed copy of Seymour Simon’s book, CATS!

Enter today for your chance to win!

February 17, 2011

Cat lover Choulie uploaded this photograph with a note: "I saw this picture of a cat and loved it! I used to have two cats name Domino and Punchy. I will love and miss them forever."

Who has photographs of their own cats that they want to share? 

February 16, 2011

Recently, Mr. K’s fifth grade class in Churchville, Pennsylvania read my book DOGS and created a poll about kids’ favorite dogs. That led to three weeks of students writing about their favorite dogs. We even ran a dog-related contest one snowy day in January.

I think it is time for cat lovers to have their say! Write and tell us about your favorite cat and why you love him or her.

Here’s an interesting, little known fact about cats to get you started: Scientists have discovered that a cat’s purr can coax its owner into giving them what they want by using a special noise that the human brain can’t ignore. According to the study, cats’ subliminal ‘feed me’ messages are disguised as ordinary purrs but have a high-pitched element that makes a human react as if it is an emergency, just like the cry of a baby.

Cats are highly intelligent animals. But you cat-lovers already knew that, didn’t you?

February 8, 2011

Over the summer, I got a call from Barnes and Noble. "Hey Seymour," they said. "We’re making the first color reader for kids. How would you like to write a book for us that we can give away to every single person who either buys a NookColor device, or downloads the NookColor app for their iPad?"

That sounded pretty good to me, so after some discussion, we decided to create a book called FUN FACTS ABOUT PETS. I did a lot of research to come up with unusual and surprising facts about common (and not so common) household pets.

The 11 pets profiled in this book are:

Bunnies, cats, dogs, goldfish, guinea pigs, hamsters, lizards, parakeets, pot-bellied pigs, snakes and Shetland ponies. 

 Do you know why cats go night crazy?

Have you ever heard that pot-bellied pigs are so smart that some can open the refrigerator when they are hungry?! And you’ll discover that dogs’ feet sweat (and why). The book is really a lot of fun, and to top it off, actress Leslie Carrara (Abby Cadabby) does a spirited, funny reading that gives the book a dose of extra pizzazz!

Thanks to all the folks at Barnes and Noble.com for working with us to make this special eBook available free to all my readers. Go to the page for FUN FACTS ABOUT PETS on my website, where you will find links to either download the free book for your NookColor, or a link to download the NookKids app for your iPad.

Happy reading!

November 13, 2010

A scientist was watching his cat drink water one day, and started to wonder why it was able to drink so neatly and quietly - especially because his dog made so much noise and mess slurping up water from its bowl.

So, he did what scientists do when they have a question - he called some friends and they decided to run an experiment. Drinking cats lap with their tongues so quickly - four times per second - that all our human eye can see is a blur. So, the scientists used high-speed cameras to capture a cat drinking. What they discovered was pretty amazing.

A drinking cat darts its tongue into the bowl so delicately that the tip just lightly touches the surface of the milk. When it pulls its tongue back, it is moving so quickly that a thin stream of milk gets pulled up behind it. Just at the moment when gravity is about to take over and cause the milk to fall…..SNAP! The cat closes its jaws over the stream of liquid and swallows it. 

A perfectly neat solution!

Since I have written books about both DOGS and CATS, kids often tell me which one they really love, and which one they think makes a better pet. The truth is that both dogs and cats can each be good and loyal pets.

But when it comes down to who is a neater, more elegant drinker? Cats win, paws down!

May 19, 2010

As you may have read previously in this space, we are creating free, downloadable TEACHER GUIDES to go with all 26 of Seymour’s Collins/Smithsonian books.

One of the nice features at the start of each Guide is a brief piece of first person writing from Seymour entitled "Why I Wrote This Book." It’s designed for teachers or parents to read aloud with kids before starting to talk about the book together.

Today we are working on the Guide to accompany CATS, and we thought you might like to preview what Seymour wrote about the genesis of this book.

 When I wrote the book on cats, my family had two feral cats that had been born in our back yard and that we took into our house when they were a few weeks old. They became tame and we named them Mittens and Sir Isaac Newton (aka Newty Frewty). You can guess the reason for naming a cat Mittens but let me tell you about Newty.  Sir Isaac Newton was one of the greatest scientists of all time and he had a mind that was “forever voyaging through strange seas of thought,” according to the poet Wordsworth. My cat Newty was always wandering into strange places in my house so that is how he got tagged with the name of the great scientist, Newton.  

 We have completed a prototype Teacher Guide - for EARTHQUAKES - and are currently testing it in classrooms.  If you would like to give us your feedback you can download a copy by clicking on this link. We would love to hear from you!

March 10, 2010

Have you ever heard the word "clowder"? It means "a group of cats."  So, if you have more than one cat in your house, your pets are a clowder of cats.

A group of kittens is referred to as a "kendle." So, that is a kendle of kittens on the cover of my book CATS! 

July 30, 2009

How much do you know about your favorite feline friend? Cats are fascinating, complex creatures. Since cats were first tamed more than 100,000 years ago, they have enchanted people with their elegant beauty and mysterious manner. But cats can also be playful and affectionate pets, death-defying acrobats, or ruthless hunters.

This is an updated introduction to these beloved and beautiful pets. Would you like to vote on which is your favorite pet? Drop me a note and vote for 1. Dogs 2. Cats 3. Another kind of animal. I’ll report your preferences on here. 

July 30, 2009

I was excited to receive a package in the mail the other day from my publisher HarperCollins. It contained three new books of mine: DOGS, CATS, and GLOBAL WARMING. The first two are reissues and updates of my books in their new uniform editions from Smithsonian/Collins. GLOBAL WARMING is not really a book yet, but printed sheets which are not yet bound. (Publishers call them f&g’s,  which stands for "folded and gathered sheets.") I’ll post photos of the covers soon. 

July 21, 2009

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