A typical bathroom would have an assortment of bath and beauty products like these and many, many more…

If you think about it, it’s really quite fascinating. Collectively us humans probably spend untold billions of dollars each year using products to keep the skin and hair on our bodies suitably coiffed, groomed, perfumed,  and cleaned. Body washes in every appealing scent known to mankind, soaps, shampoos, conditioners, facial cremes, toners, astringents, shaving cream, lotions, colognes, deodorants, and more. And, of course, within those categories are a mind-boggling variety of products to chose from. Want soap? Did you want mild, scented, unscented, antibacterial, for sensitive skin, or something made from natural ingredients only? Not to mention the devices to aid in the process – from razors to loofah sponges to wash clothes and everything in-between. There must be literally thousands upon thousands of ways to help keep us looking and smelling as beautiful as can be.

And then you have cats. They have but one tongue and that’s all they need. No gimmicks, no fuss, no muss. Just a wonderfully ingenious body part that feels like a piece of sandpaper that is used to keep all of their other body parts clean! For those of us that have ever been licked by a cat, we can relate to the sandpaper comparison, but more officially, the rough sensation is caused by the tiny, backward-facing barbs on the tongue that are called papillae. For some cats, the barbs help to hold down prey while eating (or in the case of our household, to hold down defenseless plush toys and fake mice) and for most others, they aid in the grooming process by pulling out any dead, loose, or dying hairs on their bodies. Pretty cool, huh? Rather than having to dig around at the bottom of their purse looking for a comb or hairbrush, they always have a convenient, built-in one at the ready!

Zoey wets her paw with her sandpaper tongue to begin her grooming process…

Another thing I find fascinating about cats and grooming is how they go about it. I was reading a great book the other day by Marty Becker, DVM, and Gina Spadafori called do cats always land on their feet? that is filled with all kinds of fun and interesting facts to help explain some of the behaviors surrounding our feline friends, and until I read this book, I did not give the subject much thought. But, according to Becker and Spadafori, apparently cats tend to groom themselves in a particular order, probably just like we do when we shower and get ready for the day. With that in mind, I began to watch my cats groom themselves and darned if they weren’t right. Take a look at your cats and if they are anything like my Zoey who is a model student, a typical grooming regiment begins when she licks her lips to wet the side of her paw. Her damp paw will glide over the side of her face and behind her ear and then will repeat the process for the opposite side.

While not nearly as discreet and elegant as Zoey, Rolz gets down to business as he demonstrates grooming those “personal” areas a cat likes to keep clean!

Next, she’ll daintily lick her front legs, shoulders, and  flanks, on to the back legs (one leg up), back to the other, ending with a personal trip down to the end of her tail! In our household, the grooming process can be done individually, or sometimes it is shared lovingly between one or more cats together. Zoey takes the lead in this regard too – being the perennial mother hen of the house, she tends to initiate the grooming of others – much of it stemming from her mothering instinct from raising four kittens, an instinct she never lost. For example, even though Kizmet and Jazmine were not birth kittens to her, when we adopted them, Zoey took it upon herself to groom both of them, as well as to teach them how to groom themselves.

Zoey grooms her baby Mia (who is now 6 years old) while Peanut and Zee wistfully look on.

Kizmet appreciates his surrogate mama and reciprocates the grooming with Zoey

Rolz learned from the best and gives a bath to Kizmet (this was Kizmet when  he was just a baby)

Keep in mind that being aware of your cat’s grooming habits is also an important way to know if perhaps there is something wrong with them whereby a trip to the vet might be necessary. If a cat suddenly loses interest in grooming, there might be a physical or medical reason why. And the tongue can also be a harbinger to creating dangerous hairballs, as the rough barbs act as a magnet for excess fur that kitty will inevitably ingest. Brushing your cat everyday is a great way to help lessen the amount of fur they can potentially ingest and it is also a wonderful way to bond with your cat. I know in my house, all I have to do is take out a brush, comb, or Furmintor deShedding tool and they line up waiting for a turn!

Whether it’s the Furminator, a brush, or a comb – my kitties always line up for a turn to be groomed by me!

So that’s it for today! Just an interesting bit of information on a habit that until now, perhaps you didn’t pay all that much attention to in your cat! And now you also have a new word for Scrabble or Words with Friends – papillae! Oh, and as a special bonus, a sweet and touching video of soul mate kitties, Kizmet and Jazmine grooming one another taken last year a few weeks after we adopted Jazmine!