> Anyway, the point of the post is the question I was thinking about....I was thinking about how people always say curiousity killed the cat. My question is that if cats have nine lives, did curiousity just wipe out one, or did it take out the whole nine, and truely *kill* the cat?

To say that a cat has nine lives is often interpreted in several ways. The most pronounced misinterperetation, in my view, is the reincarnation theory. This is in no way implied.
I do agree with Jimmy that the whole saying includes 'satisfaction brought it back.' Of course, when the saying was coined, they hadn't studid the nine lives theory very precisely, so 'satisfaction' was not discovered to be totally irrelevant. It simply has a store of extra lives. In this sense, it takes one of the nine lives. You see, the nine lives theory is an odd thing. You will rarely see a cat actually die, but rather, come close. You could swear Fluffy was hit smack-dab in the head by that falling piano, yet he/she must have dodged out of the way, as Fluffy is now unscathed. That's one. Over-curiosity such as to override a cat's natural good sense, such as 'I wonder what it would be like to be in the prop when the airplane begins to fly,' will quickly use up the rest of the nine, or however many that cat is left with.
I can give an example. My family took a cat off the street after seeing her get hit by a car. When examined, she had only minor scrapes and bruises. This was not a young cat, either. She was estimated to be around ten. A few years later, I got a kitten from the pound. He grew up to be 14 pounds of muscle with enough fur to stop bullets. He wanted to know about everything. He was always sniffing visitors, trying to go outside. The older one bided her time, sitting quietly in a chair most of the time, having realized that the car incident probably took a few of her lives. The older cat outlived the curious younger one who chased her around, pouncing on her and generally showing how he was bigger and stronger. The older cat still continued to be conservative, moving only when she had to, caring not for things she didn't know about. And another cat became part of the family. He was a bundle of energy if ever there was one, and he, too, frequently attacked the older cat. She outlived that one, too. Now we have another young cat. He chases the older one around, but isn't very curious, as were his predecessors. The older cat is still alive, still conservative, and is in her early twenties, which is about 2,352 cat years-- almost as old as my parents.
Curiosity only takes one life at a time. However, they quickly add up. Thus, curiosity can kill a cat, but when they're dead for the ninth time, they can't experience satisfaction, and don't come back.