Whiskers! 😸
For a smallish little three-year-old cat, LittleBit has some of the most amazing whiskers I think I've ever seen on a feline! They are plentiful and quite long for her size.
Whiskers are specialized hairs, scientifically called vibrissae by zoologists because they vibrate when touched. Those vibrations are passed down the hair shaft to nerve sensors in the hair follicle. Whiskers help animals to navigate into tight spaces and feel their way in the dark, even though feline eyesight is quite good at night.
Cats are crepuscular, meaning they are active at dawn and dusk. That may be why they need such good night vision. Their eyes have six to eight times more rod cells, which are more sensitive to low light, than humans do. [1]
LittleBit loves to lie on my tummy as I am sitting on the sofa, frequently with my laptop in my lap. She watches the screen and sometimes puts her little paws on the keyboard. She loves it when I scritch her behind her ears, rub the top of her little head, and otherwise give her some luvin' when she's lying there. She sometimes puts her little nose up in the air when I do this, as a sign of happiness, bliss, and complete trust. It was during one of those precious moments recently when I was able to very quietly pick up my phone and snap this photo. It shows her whiskers rather nicely, but still does not quite do justice to their full magnificence!
SOURCES
1 LiveScience.com: Feline Vision: How Cats See the World
2 Wikipedia: Whiskers
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06-Jun-2020
Awwww adorable fluffiness
awww... "LittleBit" is such an adorable kitty name :D
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She does definitely have beautiful and very impressive whiskers! One of our cats from some years back had amazing whiskers, too... and was not a large cat. Evidently the size of the whiskers has little to do with the size of the cat!
Happy Caturday!
=^..^=
I now can never forget crepuscular. I seek to use it naturally in conversation as soon as possible.
Very long ago, I remember a song with a similar name ("Crespuscule with Nellie"), by Thelonius Monk! 😁
I'm a sucker for cute kitty pictures.
Up close, the whiskers look amazing in length. Nice photo you were able to capture @thekittygirl. Just today, I was changing out the photos from your collection, and this was one of them I used for a new set of Terminal photochallenges.
Thanks for making such beautiful photos for members at their disposal.