The mental image of a cat burping may be a bit funny and maybe a bit jarring. After all, we tend to think of cats as neat and dainty little pets, in contrast to their raucous, rowdy, belching canine ...

"Looking back, I realized I had never burped in my entire life," says Isabelle Zeidner, a 23-year-old Columbia social work grad student who lives in New York City. "I noticed it more as I got older.