| A feeling of rough sandpaper as you are licked by | | | | helps a cat hold food or struggle with prey. |
| your cat is a reminder that its long, muscular tongue | | | | Your Help is Needed: Although the abrasiveness of a |
| serves many functions, including grooming. | | | | cats tongue helps it to clean itself and untangle its |
| A Grooming Tool and More: A cats ability to groom | | | | hair, your help is needed through regular grooming. As |
| itself is the result of numerous knobs called papillae | | | | you groom your cat, you are removing loose and |
| on the surface of a cats tongue. Located at the | | | | dead hair. Otherwise a cat may ingest this hair and |
| tongues center, the papillae form backward-facing | | | | hair balls can form, which can cause vomiting and |
| hooks containing large amounts of keratin, the same | | | | may cause impaction in the gastrointestinal tract. |
| material found in human fingernails. These hooks | | | | Longhaired cats need daily grooming; shorthaired cats |
| provide the abrasiveness a cat needs for | | | | should be groomed at least once a week. |
| self-grooming. The strength of these hooks also | | | | |