Do English cats live longer?
In England cats have 9 lives.
In Spain (and, I think, the rest of Europe), apparently they have 7!
Can anyone explain this?
En Inglaterra los gatos tienen nueve vidas.
En España (y, creo, en el resto de Europa), por lo visto, ¡tienen siete!
¿Puede alguien explicarlo?
Corrections to my Spanish translation also welcomed!
Thanks / Gracias.
Feliz año a todos, también!
6 Answers
I think it comes down to the fact that the European countries were influenced more, and earlier, than England and America by the Classical Greek and Roman civilizations.
The Greek Pythagoreans called seven the `perfect number' as it is the sum of three and four, the numbers of points in the triangle and the square.
Classical Rome had seven gods, which gave their names to days of the week.
There are seven sisters, seven seas, seven deadly sins, and so on. So seven is a very lucky number there.
In England,.the early influences came more from the Scandinavian and Celtic myths. There were nine worlds, nine heavens, their festivals were held every nine years. Nine was also considered lucky because it is the "trinity of trinities" - three x three. Therefore, an English cat has nine lives. For three he plays, for three he strays, and for the last three he stays.
So it would seem better, if you are a cat, to be English or American. 
Maybe "lucky" was the wrong word to use about the number nine - although the cat is very "lucky" to have all those extra lives 
It might be better to say that nine is a powerful number in Norse mythology, and particulary in association with witchcraft. Given the extra connection of cats with witchcraft, this could be a logical explanation for why the number nine was also associated with cats?
That's a great answer - thanks. But while I was aware that 7 was considered lucky (though lacking your detailed knowledge) I have never heard of 9 as a lucky number before! Is there any other contemporary evidence for 9 being lucky, I wonder? - Jespa
- Nine is lucky because it's mathmatical characterics
- such as 3 x 3 = 9, or
- In propability 99.99% is as close to event completion as you can get
- It is the first composite lucky number WIKI
- Cloud nine
- Nine is also very lucky for the Chinese
- There's the Nine circles of Hell in Dante's Comedia
- Nine Muses in greek mythology
- "Engine, Engine #9, Coming down" Chicago Line....a children's game to determine who is 'it' I would guess like 'Dále dále dále is sung with a Piñata
- Dressed up to the nines (not sure if this has anything to do with luck, though)
- The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court
- Nine Inch Nails
- Nine innings in baseball
- Nine bites of bread with milk and butter
But who is to say how long a life really is? If your straying for 3 of your lives, those lives could be very short lived, right? Perhaps, in Spain, each life of a cat last twice as long as the lives of a cat in England? In this case, the The Spaniard livs 5/9ths longer than the Brit-kit
9 - 5 then equals 4, and 4 is 2 squared, and Pi squared is impossible because everyone knows pies are round (if you can't tell, i'm making this all up....well starting with the nine bites of bread with milk and butter)
It is the first composite lucky number
6's and 9's are lucky in tarot, while 5's and 7's are unlucky. The numerology of tarot comes from that of Kabbalah and is very old. 6 is not only a composite number, it is a perfect number in modern number theory.
I'm surprised that 12 is not considered a lucky number given it's prominence in Babylonian times and the lingering vestiges of their base 12 system that persist to this day.
I think if you have to have 9 lives as a cat in England it must mean those lives are rougher!
Tarot cards are like words: they have many meanings depending on context. The positions in the layout have different meanings in a manner vaguely similar to the structure of a sentence. Cards that are upside down can have their meanings reversed. All of these things have to be taken into account to interpret the reading, and two "experts" are likely to give different interpretations of the same layout.
Since I have spent my life studying mathematical physics, my personal beliefs are some what at odds with things like tarot, astrology, I Ching, and the Bible, but I have studied them all to some extent out of curiosity. I find the history of such things fascinating.
6 is not only a composite number, it is a perfect number in modern number theory.
A perfect numer couldn't be lucky, since luck has to do with chance, right? There's no possibility for chance with perfection. Just some logic deduction as to why WIKI says 9 is the first lucky composite number and not 6... 
6's and 9's are lucky in tarot, while 5's and 7's are unlucky.
I had a roommate that was really into tarot, and would do tarot readings....I basically only let him read me a few times to appease him and I find the historical aspects interesting. But as I recall, the actual numbers and the court cards/trump cards/face cards changed their significance on how that card was played onto the table. So a the queen of cups on top of the mage of wands would be different if it were ten wands. And any card laid that was upside down could change the relationships of everything....or something like that....I think any number can be lucky...because numbers only quantify the things in which we find value. I guess I am going back to my idea of how can you determine which cat lives longer, because the span of one life isn't quantified.
Like Julia Roberts in Steel Magnolias 'I would rather have 30 minutes of pure wonderful than a whole life of just nothing'
