Springtime is a great time to adopt or foster a new best friend. Across the country, shelters are struggling with higher intake, while adoptions, fosters and rescues are not keeping pace. Courtesy/Best Friends Animal Society

Best Friends Animal Society News:

National Pet Day is April 11. To celebrate, Best Friends Animal Society, a leading animal welfare organization working to end the killing of cats and dogs in America’s shelters by 2025, has put together a list of some of the most interesting facts about our furry friends.

In the vein of The Late Show with David Letterman, here’s Best Friends’ top 10 list of facts:

1. Dogs’ ears have approximately 18 muscles, which help them to change the direction of their ears slightly to hear better. 
2. A cat’s whiskers are as long as their body is wide. Their whiskers let them know if they can pass through narrow spaces. 
3. Screen time might be good for puppies. If you show 3-5-week-old puppies videos of “scary” things like loud noises, they are less likely to develop fears of new things later in life. 
4. Kittens learn to meow solely to communicate with humans. Cats never meow to each other (although they do chirp to each other). 
5. Puppies don’t find yawns contagious, but older dogs do! Contagious yawning is usually attributed to social mirroring. Baby humans don’t start social mirroring until they’re a few months old, so it makes sense that puppies wouldn’t either.
6. One way a dog perceives time is by the changing smells throughout the day.   
7. Cats share 95.6% of their DNA with tigers. 
8. Because cats can pause their labor, one litter of kittens can have multiple due dates.  
9. If given the choice, dogs prefer to poop facing the North-South magnetic axis. 
10. Cats perceive humans as big, hairless cats. 

Curious to find out for yourself? 

Springtime is a great time to adopt or foster a new best friend! Across the country, shelters are struggling with higher intake, while adoptions, fosters and rescues are not keeping pace. This has led to a population imbalance, with more animals in shelters, staying for longer periods of time. With most U.S. shelters at or over capacity, pets are more at risk for being killed due to lack of space. 

To learn more about adopting and fostering, visit bestfriends.org and find a local shelter or rescue where your perfect pet is waiting.   

About Best Friends Animal Society 

Best Friends Animal Society is a leading animal welfare organization working to end the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters by 2025. Founded in 1984, Best Friends is a pioneer in the no-kill movement and has helped reduce the number of animals killed in shelters from an estimated 17 million per year to around 355,000. Best Friends runs lifesaving programs across the country, as well as the nation’s largest no-kill animal sanctuary. Working collaboratively with a network of more than 4,100 animal welfare and shelter partners, and community members nationwide, Best Friends is working to Save Them All®. For more information, visit bestfriends.org.