Angel vs. Whisker

Why does Angel want to eat her spent whisker?  Do any of your cats do this?

If you watch my videos, I won't let her swallow the thing, but it's definitely what she wanted to do!

https://youtu.be/Vnfi6x07yNo




https://youtu.be/92zWG7ztuzE





P.S. I apologize for the broken jigsaw puzzle thing with my last post; I think it's fixed now.  Thanks for letting me know!

Oh-de-FUR!

The camera loves Angel

Wha-ooh...look at all the fur!

While taking photos of Angel in one of her favorite beds, I was struck by the huge amount of fur that she has left behind. After she'd vacated her nappy spot, I attempted to clean it out with a damp cloth...

Evidence

I scored two spent whiskers (score!), and a pile of fur and stuff.  The Hubby wants to use the upright vacuum on it! I think I'd rather leave Angel in a nest of fur rather than chance making her unhappy with a cleaned beddy.  She will roam the house, wondering why we messed with her perfectly good set-up.

Any fur is good fur to Chuck

A bed full of Angel's fur does not appear to bother Chucky in the least...

When we can open the windows again, all of the cat beds, sleeping spots and hidey holes will get a thorough shake out, wash, vacuum...whatever is needed to de-fur, so they can begin the process again...

Whisker Toy

Angel's new favorite toy...is one of her spent whiskers!  I put my finger on the fat end of it, and twirl it around inside the box.  Angel jumps at it, bats at it, tries to chew it, and seems to really enjoy herself.  When I stop moving it around, the cat settles back down and doesn't bother with it.  How weird it that!

Another spent whisker story: in one of my favorite books, "A Cat Named Darwin: How a Stray Cat Changed a Man into a Human Being" by William Jordan, the author fondly tells of a time that he narrowly avoided disaster when he chose to tickle Darwin's foot with a spent cat whisker.  The cat was sleeping, and the man tickled and poked at paw pads with only the whisker, until he suddenly found himself in a cat death grip, with front paws wrapped around his hand, back legs poised for arm evisceration, and mouth clamped on fingers.  Darwin the cat did not break the skin, but his posture meant business!  Quickly cooing and coaxing to convince the cat to let go, the author dropped that whisker and was released, but he learned a valuable lesson about tickling his sleeping cat!

Stray Whisker

Patty lost a whisker in the outside water bucket.  He's got the coolest whiskers; they start as dark brown or black nearest his face, then turn white on the ends.

Chucky's whiskers are all black, and Angel's are just plain white.  I've carefully saved a few shed whiskers from both cats...dunno why, just have...but Angel does a funny thing with hers.  If I find one of her long white whiskers, I'll often use it as a toy, and Angel will ALWAYS eat the thing!  She grabs it out of my fingers with her teeth, and she'll chew it down.  Weird...and kind of gross.  She also eats cobwebs, popcorn, and licks my sprouted wheat bread toast.  But the face she makes when I hold up a banana would have you rolling on the floor with laughter; it's as close to a Bitter Beer Face as any cat could manage!  I'll have to try to capture that face in a photo someday, as she scrunches up her nose and pulls her head back.