If you’re ever at our house for very long, you might hear one of Mom’s Agatha Christie audio books.

I bring this up because of Hercule Poirot, the little Belgian detective who routinely caresses his luxuriant “mustaches”. It got me thinking… that Hercule Poirot has nothing on me and my “mustaches”!So Mom said I could do a post about my whiskers. Fortunately she had plenty of pictures of them in the computer. All she had to do was crop them in closer so you could see how luxuriant they really are.I’ve pretty much had long whiskers ever since I was a baby. Mom read that cats use their whiskers for all kinds of things, like feeling around in the dark and determining whether or not we will fit into tight spaces. That could be true, but I think our whiskers mostly serve to make us look cool!Mom also read that we have whiskers on the underside of our front legs. This is to help us accurately position our prey since we are farsighted and can’t see stuff that’s really close to us that well. Mom likes it that most of my whiskers are white, so they show up well in photos.She thinks they look cool against a variety of backgrounds.Do you like how they show up against the fireplace?See how they show up in the light when I’m on the bedroom windowsill?Don’t I look mysterious?Our whiskers also serve as an indication of our mood. I think I look a bit startled in this picture. Is it the whiskers or the eyes? This is my thoughtful, inquisitive look. This is my intelligent look. See how I am sitting on top of a book, and how my whiskers are arranged evenly on both sides, except for that one that’s bent upwards on the right?Actually, my whiskers aren’t all the same length. But look how long some of them are! Mom just said that she read in an article that our whiskers are usually as long as the width of our bodies.That’s how they help us know if we should or shouldn’t attempt to go through something like a hole in the fence, or even our den.Wait, Mom, are you saying having long whiskers means I’m chubby?Our whiskers are extra sensitive because their follicles have lots more nerve endings than those of our regular hairs. The article says you should never cut our whiskers. If you do, we will feel dizzy and disoriented.In this photo you can see that we also have whiskers above our eyes. You might also notice that I do have one black whisker on the left side. You kind of have to watch out when you sleep, because you run the risk of squishing your luxuriant mustaches.That’s one reason I like sleeping on my back whenever possible.Much safer for the mustaches!So now you know about cat whiskers.

Any questions?