I had never given this matter any thought: why do we say in the U.S. that cats have “9” lives? Is that based on some particular myth? Why 9, and not 7, for example? Or why not less?

Well, despite what you might read out there in English on the Internet on this topic, there is no particular “mystic” association with all cats and the number 9. The Wikipedia entry about this captures some of the variation in the world: cats in Spanish-speaking countries are said to have 7, while Chris and I both think that in Italy cats have 9, like in the U.S.

This came up recently because we learned that in Germany cats have only 7 lives, not 9.

Which then got me thinking. Back in Italy, I’d often see cats walking through the streets or sitting in windows:

Cat in a window, Bolzano, Italy

However, here in Germany, in almost 9 months of living here, I haven’t really seen many cats at all. Maybe since they don’t have as many lives to draw on, they stay inside more and don’t take as many chances?

Or maybe the life of  cats here in Tübingen is just that much harder. Consider this cat door on a second floor window in a building in town:

Cat door and stairs, Tübingen, Germany

A cat needs only to forget to turn toward that ramp to get down, and that first step will take care of one life, eh? Which just shows that German cats could really use another couple of lives, like their American cousins, I guess.