West Coast Edition—From A Cat’s Perspecitve™
FROM A CAT’S PERSPECTIVE BROADCAST™—LIVE FROM CHANNEL KAT
And thank you Cathy Keisha for passing today’s broadcast of “From A Cat’s Perspective™” over to me.
West Coast edition, channel KAT—From A Cat’s Perspective™
I am back again with my co-anchor, Cathy Keisha, asking a serious question. I certainly am not going to hold back my opinion and I hope you will leave us a comment to let us know your feline perspective on this important topic.
“From A Cat’s Perspective™”, Channel KAT, is asking our viewers this question—“Should A Cat’s Whiskers Be Cut?”
I can give you seven reasons why no human in their right mind ought to ever, never consider doing such a thing.
Let me start with the least harmful and end with the most important reason of all.
Seven—Our whiskers communicate our feelings and moods. Mom L knows that if my whiskers are whipped forward then I am ready for play hunting!
Let’s hunt!!
Six—My chill’axed whisker position is always that droopy whisker look. Then humans know I am just hang’in out.
Chill’axin—please notice my Ear Whisker just below my ear
Five—I must have missed a lot of my jumps before coming to live in my forever castle. You see, we cats depend on our whiskers to know just how far and how high we must leap to get to our desired target. Hmmmm—wonder if some human, or human child, cut off my whiskers and I fell when jumpin’? You know I never ever like to get very high off the ground, right? Just a thought—
Four—No whiskers, no sense of touch. Yup, without my whiskers, how would I ever be able to follow Mom L to the human litter box at night, wait for her, then follow her back and MEOW out loud to make sure she gets me a few kibbles for my midnight, or two AM, or four AM snack?
Three—Everyone knows we use our whiskers to learn if we can fit into a tight space or not—right? But, did you know that our whiskers respond to vibration in the air and help us when we are chasing that “ever illusive” wand toy? That means without whiskers, I would not be able to hunt successfully. And even more important are our whiskers just behind our upper pad on both our front legs. The Kid Sage and I depend on these whiskers a lot. (you must click on photos to view the detail—apologies for poor camera work on Mom L’s behalf)
Two—my whiskers have a sensory organ, at the end of each and every whisker (called a proprioceptor) which is my online telepathic communicator sending text messages to my brain and nervous system. My whiskers are so sensitive, they give me a ton of data about any teeny change in my environment. That’s why I can tell in an instant that Mom L is about to pick me up to whack off my cherished sharp claws.
One—most of you know that our whiskers are officially called “vibrissae”. Big word meaning—my whiskers are embedded into my body’s sensitive muscular and nervous systems. If you pull, cut off my whiskers, you have hurt me in so many ways I cannot count. Use the brush or Furminator to help me keep my furs groomed and glistening. Please do not ever try to pull out my whiskers, even if they appear to a human to be on a strange part of my body.
Above all, please teach your human kittens to never, ever, cut, pull or tug on cats’ whiskers. They are an essential part of our ability to live our nine lives. And you must know that blind cats depend about 90% on their whiskers to move around and lead active, healthy lives when they are with humans.
Well, glad we had this little chat, and hope to hear any of your experiences with a time in your life where you thought you had “lost your whiskers”.
And now I say “Good Day” to my co-anchor Cathy Keisha and ask that you visit her to find out what her experience and opinions are about his important topic. And don’t forget that this conversation will continue on over at my Face Book page.
Paw Pats, Savannah
Savannah's Paw Tracks 
Cut a cat’s whiskers? Who would even think of doing such an awful thing as that? MOUSES!
Purrs,
Seville
than you for this VERY IMPORTANT message! Just say NO to whisker cutting!
Savvy! Excellent report (as always) on whiskers! Way to goes grrl (And CK too)
Kisses
Your Grrl Furrend
Nellie Bellie
PS es feeling much better today.
Oh Nellie! So pleased you could visit today. I know you are feeling your years, but you know you have a paw circle around you all the time to keep you warm and comfy.
Thank you, Savvy and CK, for making it clear that a cat’s whiskers are NOT to be messed with! Period!
No one should ever cut off a cats’ whiskers.
UGH my sisters kids when young did this..cut their cats whiskers off..great joke in the family..of course they were all totally dysfunctional beasts like their mother and father..thankfully the apple falls far from the tree here..people can be infinitely stupid! Loves Miss Bev xxx
We need our whiskers! They should never be cut. Though when the mom sees one of ours that looks like it’s falling out, she will help it. Sheesh.
Excellent broadcast! We can’t even fathom why anyone would cut or pull whiskers. *head boggles*
Savvy, Mom did some research once but couldn’t find an answer as to how whiskers figure out how long they can or should grow. For instance, Giulietta is a wide-body cat and has really long whiskers. Fiona is skinny and has short whiskers. We know whiskers are supposed to let a cat know if it can fit through a space, but how does the whisker know how big the cat is? XOCK, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo
We save whiskers and have them in a vlovely glass bowl. Cutting sounds totally stupid and brainless and nuts.
savvy….de food servizz gurl findz whizkerz layin round & her saves em….we tried ta tell her …uh, they willna go bak IN, but thanx……N yea…..what de be jezuz…..whisker cuttin iz az bad az de de claw far az we iz concerend….what de H iz wrong with peepulz……faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ~~~~~~~~~ ♥♥♥
I have never heard of cutting off a furfriend’s whiskers. I didn’t even know that was a thing! Yikes. Those are all good reasons to leave them alone, plus – YIKES!
Love and licks,
Cupcakle
The whole idea of cutting a cat’s whiskers totally freaks Mom out. We can’t imagine why anyone would do something so dumb.
The Florida Furkids
grate post there Savannah an CK! How could any Hu’man dee-whiskurr us??? LadyMum said there was a woman inn here who snipped her kat’ss whiskurrss berry short an thee kat got so herted missin thee landinss hee broked a leg an fingss got werser an hee was put to sleep!!!
Ladymum till not meow with the woman! Shee nevurr furgave her…
Mee needss mee whiskurrss with mee ‘ouchie’ eye fur sure…..
***nose kissesss***
Very interesting. Do our whiskers do that too?
Snorts,
Lily & Edward
yes Lily and Edward!! go read about woofie whiskers. http://www.petmd.com/dog/general-health/why-do-dogs-have-whiskers yours are very important too!! And some dog show judges won’t put up a dog unless it’s muzzle is all tidy and whisker free!!! Awful!!
I learned a lot from reading this, as I knew I would. Your perspective is dead on.
aaaah now I know why cats can walk on the most difficult places… you have your own gps including a balanceholder in your whiskers…. :o)
Great info here. It has never, ever crossed my mind to cut or trim the whiskers on my cats. I hope no one ever does that!
I can’t imagine why humans think our beautiful and VERY useful and important whiskers should be cut off. That’s just crazy AND mean. Thanks for reminding everyone how important they are to us!
Hugs, Sammy
We are so mad and couldn’t believe that people cute their cats whiskers off – that is an evil thing to do.
Luv Hannah and Lucy xx xx
Our Human read this and She was like:”Duh?!?! Why on earth would anyone even THINK of cutting off their furbaby’s whiskers???
I’m so glad you and CK set everyone straight on this, Savvy!
Our HuMom is also horrified to think anyone might even consider defiling a feline’s whiskers. As someone who has been lucky enough to share her entire life with cats she has always found our whiskers fascinating. Over the last few years she’s been watching as My whiskers have gone from pitch black to bright white. The rules for cats are pretty simple. When we reach the age recommended by our veterinarian we should be spayed or neutered. After that, don’t remove anything beyond a hair brushing and a quick mani/pedi without the Vet’s recommendation. We all thank you Savannah, along with Mom L and your co-anchor Cathy Keisha for publishing this public service announcement. Hopefully the humans will all learn this valuable lesson!
Not to cut of whiskers is even more important than not to declaw your cat (still allowed in your part of the world, not so here!).
We were horrified to think peeps cut off whiskers! We agree, never should peeps do that, and whilst I can’t imagine why, I can sadly believe that they do. purrs Erin