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your sweat glands. We may not be able to smell the odour of our hands, but a cat can.
    Finally, the vigorous tugging at the fur which is so typical of a cat's self-grooming actions plays a special role in stimulating the skin glands at the base of the individual hairs. The secretions of these glands are vital to keep the fur waterproofed, and the tugging of the cat's busy tongue steps up the waterproofing as a protection against the rain.
    So grooming is much more than mere cleaning. When it licks its fur a cat is protecting itself, not only from dirt and disease, but also from exposure to cold, from overheating, from vitamin deficiency, from social tension, from foreign odours and from getting drenched to the skin. No wonder it devotes so much of its waking day to this piece of behaviour.
    There is one danger inherent in this activity. Moulting cats and cats with very long fur quickly accumulate a large number of hairs inside their alimentary tracts and these form into hairballs which can cause obstructions. Usually hairballs are vomited up naturally without causing any trouble, but if they grow too large they may become a serious hazard. Cats of a nervous disposition, which do a great deal of displacement grooming, also suffer in this way. To solve their problem it is necessary to find out what is causing their agitation and deal with it. For the moulting and long-haired cats the only prevention is regular grooming by the cat's owner with brush and comb, to remove the excess fur.
    Self-grooming begins when the kitten is about three weeks old, but it has its fur attended to by the mother from the moment of its birth.
    Being groomed by another cat is called allogrooming, in contrast with self-grooming which is known technically as autogrooming. Allogrooming is common not only between mother and kitten, but also between adult cats that have grown up together and have developed a close social bond.
    Its primary function is not mutual hygiene, but rather a cementing of the friendly relation that exists between the two animals. All the same, licking in a region that is hard for the cat itself to reach does have a special appeal, and cats are partial to attention behind the ears. This is why tickling and rubbing behind the ears is such a popular form of contact between cat-owners and their cats.
    The autogrooming actions often follow a set sequence, when a cat is indulging in a complete 'wash-and-brush-up'. The typical routine goes as follows: 1 Lick the lips. 2 Lick the side of one paw until it is wet. 3 Rub the wet paw over the head, including ear, eye, cheek and chin. 4 Wet the other paw in the same way. 5 Rub the wet paw over that side of the head. 6 Lick front legs and shoulders. 7 Lick flanks. 8 Lick genitals. 9 Lick hind legs. 10 Lick tail from base to tip.
    If at any stage during this process an obstruction is encountered – a tangled bit of fur, for example – the licking is momentarily abandoned in favour of a localized nibble with the teeth. Then, when all is clear, the grooming sequence is resumed. Foot and claw nibbling are particularly common, removing dirt and improving the condition of the claws. This complicated cleaning sequence differs from that seen in many other mammals. Rats and mice, for example, use the whole of their front paws for grooming their heads, whereas the cat uses only the side of the paw and part of the forearm. Also, rodents sit up on their back legs and groom with both front feet at the same time, while the feline technique is to employ each front leg alternately, resting its body on the one not in use. Human observers rarely comment on such differences, remarking simply that an animal is busy cleaning itself.
    In reality, closer observation reveals that each species follows a characteristic and complex sequence of actions.
     

Why does a cat wag its tail?
     
    Most people imagine that if a cat wags its tail it must be angry, but this is only a partial truth. The real answer is that the cat