[Search for users] [Overall Top Noters] [List of all Conferences] [Download this site]

Conference misery::feline_v1

Title:Meower Power is Valuing Differences
Notice:FELINE_V1 is moving 1/11/94 5pm PST to MISERY
Moderator:MISERY::VANZUYLEN_RO
Created:Sun Feb 09 1986
Last Modified:Tue Jan 11 1994
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5089
Total number of notes:60366

2149.0. "Whiskers" by BRAT::GERMANN () Wed Jan 18 1989 12:23

    When I got the article about massage out of the magazine last night,
    I also cut out the following one.  I thought it was interesting
    and humorous.
    
    
    		WHAT ARE WHISKERS FOR?
    
    		Wind detectors and more
    
    Reprinted without permission from the February issue of Better Homes
    and Garden.
    -------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    We've all seen how annoyed cats get when someone accidently touches
    their whiskers.  The reason: whiskers are highly sensitive, and
    your cat relies heavily on them.
    
    When its dark, for example, whiskers help your cat determine whether
    it can fit into cramped spaces - such as the area between your chin
    and your chest while you're sleeping.
    
    Whiskers also function as wind detectors.  Working with a feline's
    acute sense of smell, they help locate the source of an odor. 
    (Unsubstantiated studies also indicate that whiskers are particularly
    sensitive to the drafts created by hot tuna casseroles.)
    
    Most amazingly, whiskers protect a cat's eyes when it's plunging
    through the undergrowth.  Each time a protruding branch or a bent
    twig touches the cat's whiskers, it triggers an astonishingly fast
    eye blink.
    
    A cat would be lost without its whiskers.  So, never trim them or
    cut them off. Periodically, they'll fall out on their own.  But,
    new ones take months to grow back.
                              
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
2149.1purely cosmeticRUTLND::SWITCHBOARDWed Jan 18 1989 17:318
    
    	When I was about 6/7 years old I decided my cat needed a haircut.
    
    Soooo,   I cut her whiskers off.  I couldn't understand my fathers
    
    disgust, my reasons were purely cosmetic.  He explained the necessity
    
    for whiskers to me and I haven't done it since.
2149.2Whisker HoardingYUPPY::MUNROThu Jan 19 1989 11:539
    One of my cats has usually one or sometimes two white whiskers (in
    amongst the black ones) and for the past few weeks, even months,
    she's had one extra long white one.  I've been waiting for ages
    for her to shed it and finally she did yesterday, so I've added
    it to the collection in my pin cushion!
    
    Any ideas as to what you can do with a collection of whiskers?
    
    Pam.
2149.3Do you do needlework??NETMAN::DISMUKEChocolate lips don't lie...Thu Jan 19 1989 17:316
    re .2
    
    Do you do any needwork?  It would be neat to do a face of your cat
    in cross-stitch and use the real whiskers for the face....
    
    
2149.4HILLST::MASONExplaining is not understandingThu Jan 19 1989 22:174
    I had collected them from our cats for years to use in tying fishing
    flies.  Never have used them, but they look neat.
    
    Gary
2149.5CRUISE::NDCFri Jan 20 1989 10:459
    I've been collecting them too.  I'm going to make earrings out of
    them when I have enough.  I'm trying to get enough black ones from
    Isis first.  Three of the cats have white whiskers, which show up
    really well on the carpet so I always find them, but Isis's are
    harder to see.  Plus she's the only one shedding black whiskers.
      Nancy DC
    
    p.s. I LOVE the idea of using them in a needlepoint picture!
    
2149.6Earrings??YUPPY::MUNROFri Jan 20 1989 16:057
    I think the idea of the picture sounds great too - I'll have to
    take up needlework though.  
    
    How on earth do you intend to make earrings out of them, Nancy?
    
    Pam
    
2149.7CRUISE::NDCFri Jan 20 1989 18:1415
    I'm going to use some gold filled wire and some jewelers epoxy to
    make a tuft of them, then I can also put a semi-precious bead on
    the end of the wire, and lastly make a loop that will be used
    to hook the whole affair to a "ball-post" or kidney-wire.
          
          O---|-    <----  Ball post  (4 mm gf ball on post) 
           |
           O        <----  Semi-precious bead
          /|\
         //|\\      <----   "tuft" of cat whiskers
        ///|\\\
                                                  
    
       Wadda-ya think?
    
2149.8Whisker earringsYUPPY::MUNROMon Jan 23 1989 10:156
    I think it sounds great.  I'd love to try it too.
    
    Don't you think it'll be a bit tickly though?  I mean, think what
    it's like when they get up your nose!
    
    Pam
2149.9CRUISE::NDCTue Jan 24 1989 10:515
      RE: -1
        hmmm...you may be right, I'll let you know.  
      I also have some feathers I found in the yard (I think Goliath
    had been out hunting) and I might do something with those too.
    Interesting mix, cat whiskers and feathers.
2149.10stuffed kittyCIMNET::GLADDINGExactly the same but differentWed Jan 25 1989 14:175
    I saw a picture in one of the cat magazines of a woman who
    saved her cat's whiskers and made a stuffed cat out of material
    and attached the whiskers to it.  It looked really cute!
    
    Pam