Quote Originally Posted by beachguy in thongs

Cats are members of the family Felidae. They are the most strictly carnivorous of the nine families in the order Carnivora (which include dogs). Cats are capable of about 100 different vocalizations, compared to about 10 for dogs.

All felines, the small domestic cat included, are superpredators capable of destroying almost any creature smaller than themselves. Cats can hear much higher-pitched sounds, even better than dogs.
Cats are amazing. Here's a quote from a book called "Catlore" by the famous philanthropist Desmond Morris:

Quote Originally Posted by Desmond Morris
A blind musician claimed that he could detect a hundred different sounds made by cats (...) Why should this be, twhen the cat is not a particularly sociable animal? In nature, it is those species which live in highly organized groups that require complicated communication systems, so there seems to be something odd about the cat.
I love facts like the blind musician one. And cats' huge vocabularies are for talking to their owners with, and getting them to pet them, feed them, or kick them out the back door.