This is a tongue in cheek question but there may be a certain amount of truth in it. Domestic cats are used to grooming hair. How do they find bare arms to groom? I wonder how they feel about. Does it make them question whether we are cats or not? 🙂 .
The idea comes from watching my cat groom me and a question a lady asked on the internet. She asked an expert why her cat was suddenly affectionate towards her husband. She mentioned her hubby has hairy arms. Their cat liked to lick his arms. The hirsute arms might act as a stimulus the expert remarked.
If being hairy stimulates a cat to groom a person it would favour the male of the human species. There is nothing to suggest amongst the million tons of cat information on the internet that men get more of the cat grooming action than women so I doubt that in general cats are stimulated to groom hairy arms!
However, this is more likely to be an individual cat trait. Each cat has his preferences. The lady’s cat could just be one of those who prefers hirsute men 😉 .
My personal experience is that hair can be a barrier when it is on humans. My cat likes to lick my hands but hardly ever the hairy bit of my arms and almost never the hair on my head.
Does anyone have any personal experience of this nature? Seriously, I’d have thought that most people have not given it any thought because there are no indications that it is a noticeable cat trait.
My cats don’t seem at all interested in licking a hairy arm or leg, mine or my husbands; but they will lick the salty taste off our hands in the summer.
Eva
Eva, what you say concurs pretty much with my experiences too. We’ll have to conclude that hairy people are not at an advantage over smooth skinned people on the cat grooming stakes 😉 .
I’ve got a mental image of a pair of Yeti’s now!
One of my cats used to lick my eyelids to wake me up but never my hair.
I have some hair on my arms but he never tried to clean it..
That’s exactly where my cat licks me to wake me up, maybe they understand they need to get the eyes open. Very clever if true.
My cat never licks my skin. And none of my other cats did either.
That’s interesting. My cats have always licked my hands.
I do not consider myself to be particularly Hirsute, On a scale of 1 to 10 (Man 1, Mountain Gorilla 10) I would come in at 1…even with my beard (cancelled out by my lack of hair on top). My cat seams quite happy to wash me to get my attention when I am sleeping.
Alan, I believe that if anything you are at an advantage when it comes to being cat groomed! I have concluded that hair is not a factor. It is more about the taste of the skin and of course the friendship. When my cat bumps into my hair he shakes his head 😉 .