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Cats look very much like humans. The most obvious differences are the teeth, which are those of a carnivore rather than an omnivore, the ears are higher up on the head and are pointed, and the number of nipples (6). Internally a cat is characterised by colour-coordinated organs, a decorated stomach wall, and a heartbeat that sounds "cooler" than a human's. Cats come in at least two races; they are capable of speech, and have a level of intelligence comparable with that of a human. The most important difference between cats and humans is an advanced sense of smell (they smell the words in their books) and an interest in cat food. A cat relationship lasts for three minutes, and they do not refer to each other by name at any time.
Cat culture is strongly dependent on their religion, believing that a god known as Cloister will lead them to the promised land, Fuchal (pronounced "Fyooshal"), where they would open a Temple of Food. Cloister is said to be the father of the Cat people. He is reported to have lived years ago, at the Beginning. A religious conflict concerning the colour (red or blue) of the hats that the people who served at the Temple of Food were to wear led to a Holy War between the two factions that lasted thousands of years. Most of the Felis sapiens population was killed in the fighting. A truce was called, and each faction built a spacecraft and left Red Dwarf in search of Fuchal. The faction who believed the hats should be blue followed a sacred writing of Cloister, that they had interpreted as a star chart, and immediately flew into an asteroid. It is not known what became of the second spacecraft.
In the novel Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, the war is over whether the god is called Cloister or Clister, rather than the color of the hats. And the promised land is named "Bearth" for Earth, rather than "Fuchal" for Fiji.
Food ( fish and birds in particular) are of central cultural and economic importance. Due to voracious consumption of food, five fish is the equivalent of being a millionaire. Appreciation is shown to someone who gives them food by licking that person. In true feline fashion their food is given a chance to escape, which means they taunt it with a song. Whenever an unknown presence (including strange humans and humanoids) is met they make themselves look big by raising their arms above their head and pull a snarling face. This is to prevent getting eaten by the stranger. Cats also love what they call "shiny things" and will play with the object. Any attempt to take the "shiny thing" from a Cat may result in the offender being eaten.
As a whole cats are extremely vain and love mirrors almost as much as their actual selves. If they share a close bond with a human or humanoid, they like to give them something they really hate. This seems to be a great honour.
The Cat wears clothes, in a particularly garish style, and it's implied that all other cats dress well. They developed the trouser press before the wheel. The Cat launders his clothing by licking it, as a house cat would; he merely sprays his tongue with detergent first.
Whenever he enters unfamiliar surroundings, he removes a small spraycan from his lapel and begins spraying objects, reciting all the while, "This is mine, this is mine." This is apparantly a technologically-based scent-marking of his territory, the exact contents of the can are uknown.
Most of their other technology, particularly spacecraft, was stolen from the cargo hold of the Red Dwarf. In particular, they depended on canned food for survival. In the novelizations , the first tool discovered by cats is a can opener.
The Cat race learned English by watching The FlintstonesThe Flintstones a Hanna-Barbera animated series, is one of the most successful television cartoons of all time, running in American prime time for six seasons, from 1960 to 1966, on ABC. An earlier proposed title was The Flagstones''. The show was set in. They also have a spoken language: the only word known is Jozxyqk, meaning "the sound you get if you trap your sexual organs in something". They use their scent to read books and the same smell can mean different things. Dave Lister's underwear was a prime example of this case.