Drunk Kitties
Balanced on the edge of a table, tucked between books on a shelf, dripping with condensation on what used to be a nice wood surface. Any room you enter in my house and you can usually find a half-drunk glass of water precariously perched. I realize I am slowly ruining everything I own, but a positive result of one of my more reckless bad habits is there are always cups just waiting to be sipped from, usually reachable without even leaving my seat. I see this as a very positive thing, especially when the Philly heat can get so stifling movement just isn’t an option. The other day I saw little Charlie, the kitten, taking advantage of a fresh field of H2O mines set throughout the living room and I decided this too was a good thing. I’ve finely tuned this practice over the past 22 years; obviously nothing is going to stop me from leaving cups around anytime soon. Why shouldn’t we encourage Charlie to take advantage of that and stay hydrated herself? I tried to gather my roommates support to start teaching Charlie this great survival skill, but was quickly turned down. Apparently no one likes the idea of potentially swapping spit with a kitten. I had to give in to the majority, but I was left with a burning question. Is cat’s saliva so bad?
After some brief research, the results were all the same, YES! Cat’s actually have more germs on the tongue and in their spit than dogs or humans. Apparently, cat bites are way more likely to get infected than a dog’s, and contact with cat’s saliva can lead to cat scratch disease (which isn’t very serious, but surely uncomfortable) if the cat is carrying that bacteria.
Even more interesting, I found out even cat allergies are caused by their spit. When cats lick themselves the saliva dries on their fur. What is left behind is a protein, Fel-DI, or dander. The dander flakes off with their fur and gets all over your house, furniture and clothes. It is this protein that humans are allergic to, not the actual fur.
For some reason there is not much information on actually sharing spit with a cat. I know I am not the only one who’s asked this question, but I suppose there really aren’t any positive facts about feline saliva to support my original idea. I also know Ryan, who silently bears life with two cats and a cat allergy, will be glad to know I have officially reversed my stance on humans and cats sharing water glasses.
After some brief research, the results were all the same, YES! Cat’s actually have more germs on the tongue and in their spit than dogs or humans. Apparently, cat bites are way more likely to get infected than a dog’s, and contact with cat’s saliva can lead to cat scratch disease (which isn’t very serious, but surely uncomfortable) if the cat is carrying that bacteria.
Even more interesting, I found out even cat allergies are caused by their spit. When cats lick themselves the saliva dries on their fur. What is left behind is a protein, Fel-DI, or dander. The dander flakes off with their fur and gets all over your house, furniture and clothes. It is this protein that humans are allergic to, not the actual fur.
For some reason there is not much information on actually sharing spit with a cat. I know I am not the only one who’s asked this question, but I suppose there really aren’t any positive facts about feline saliva to support my original idea. I also know Ryan, who silently bears life with two cats and a cat allergy, will be glad to know I have officially reversed my stance on humans and cats sharing water glasses.
posted by Zeke, Gin, and Sid at
5:39 PM
1 Comments
