A Michael Broad Blog
Katherine M. Rogers in her book “Cat” informs me that the domestic cat’s habit of constantly licking themselves “is repellent to orthodox Hindus, who consider saliva unclean”. Westerners like the fact that domestic cats keep themselves clean. They smell nice, sort of nutty. Westerners like to bury their head into their cat’s fur or …
Cat grooming not only cleans the coat, and deposits saliva, but it is also a form of parasite control. In other words, domestic cats do lick fleas off their bodies but they then ingest them and in doing so they ingest the larval tapeworm which once inside the cat develops into an adult tapeworm …
Dogs pant more than cats because their chosen method of temperature regulation and cooling is panting whereas for cats it is depositing saliva on their fur together with panting in extreme circumstances. The difference between cats and dogs with respect to losing heat and temperature regulation is that cats lick themselves, deposit their saliva …
“Why does a cat lick me?” was a genuine question years ago. But 15 years of the cat internet and people have learned what it means. And what it means is what it looks like: domestic cats lick their human companion (owner or guardian) because they want to do them a favour and groom …
