Cat's Tact

Although cats are well endowed with organs that are stimulated through the tact, this seems to be one of the less develop sense, maybe because of the fact that it results less operative as a hinting technique.

The tongue, nose and claws, in that order, are the most sensible parts of cats bodies, as is confirmed by the fact that they caress the food they don't know with their snout or that they repeatedly touch mew objects with their claws and paws as a way of investigating.

When the cat moves, the receptors lodged in his paws emit information to the brain about the texture of the surface, temperature and even the angles and inclinations. This information permits the cat to move in an adequate and secure way along the terrain.

It is also believed that the claws detect minimum vibrations, which would explain that capacity they say cats have too react before situations such as earthquakes before humans do.

Sensible to tact
The whiskers or vibrissae, are also sensible, its value as a method of orientation is indicated by the fact that cats that have suffer an accident and loosed their whiskers, maybe in a fight, tend to move much less secure, while those who have many whiskers dare to explore new places with much more confidence.

The pilous follicles of the cats coat respond also to tact, which explains the great delight they feel when they are caressed or scratched and how much they protest when it's not done well. The pleasure of being caressed is acquired since kittens when the mother would clean them.

Also, there are a series of sensors in the skin that gives information about the conditions of heat or cold, and that takes them to look for warm places to sleep or to bristle its hair to increase its isolation. These sensors react also to air currents.

The owners who dare to bath their cats and afterwards to use the hair drier, they know well that the coat of their pets are very sensible to strong currents of air.

In general, cats don't like at all the wind and they tend to run an look for shelter, although in autumn, the fear to the wind competes with the curiosity of chasing "flying" leaves.

And something very curious is how sensible they seem to be to the high temperatures of things. We humans start to feel pain more or less at 44ºc, while the cat's threshold is of about 52ºc, which explains why they usually sleep near intense hating sources and sometimes they even get their hair burned. By the contrary, its nose is very sensible to cold, reason why they tend to bury it under its tail looking for warm and comfort.