The Cat's Skin

The most impressing about the cat's skin is its looseness, overall on the back of the neck, sometimes is so pronounced that it seems as if the animals would be capable of curling inside it.

This property permits to compensate for the loosing of heat; it prevents serious damages during fights and makes it easier for acrobatic jumps.

The skin counts with a double layer. The coats hair has its roots in the interior one, the dermis .

The outer layer or epidermis has a protecting function, and it cells are regenerating constantly; the dead cells fall off or are eliminated by the cat when cleaning himself with its tongue.

At the nose and at its feet, the epidermis can be up to 75 times more thick than in the rest of the body, without loosing any of its sensibility to changes in the pressure or the temperature; at its feet there are sweat glands.

In difference with dogs, cats don't loose heat by nostrils, that are maintained humid thanks to the action of the mucous membrane that is lodged inside the nose.