They all have one and we humans actually find the cat’s tongue to be rather interesting with its coarse barbs and lapping and grooming abilities. In fact, the cats tongue is made for grooming, which is highly important to a cat. Not only does licking help keep the cat cool in warm weather, but it’s quite a handy tool for removing loose fur (so it doesn’t mat and tangle) and dirt particles. If you have a cat, you probably sometimes find odd-looking tubular brown squishy things lying around your house. Those are fur balls your cat has coughed up after a vigorous grooming session.
Cats also groom after eating and usually after petting. Why are cats so fastidious about 
cleanliness? According to the experts, this is a throwback from their ancestors. Cats are small and they’re prey to many larger animals. If they were to run around the jungle or the backstreets smelling of mouse blood, they’d be detected by their hungry enemies and probably invited to supper.
As cute and interesting as that little tongue is, it can also create danger for your cat. When he licks something, it’s liable to get stuck on his barbed tongue. If he can’t get it loose, it’s going to be swallowed and we do not want our cats swallowing yarn, string, ribbon, or Christmas tree tinsel, for example.
My gorgeous Persian cat, Crystal, once swallowed a needle. Looking back, I’m sure I know how that happened. Crystal loved to help me sew. She’d sit next to the sewing machine and watch the process as I made clothing or worked on a craft project. The day of the incident, I’m sure that she must have sat too close to the pin cushion. She was always grooming herself. Imagine this—she licks herself and happens to pick up a piece of thread (green) with her tongue. She tries to spit it out, but her tongue is designed to take it in, so she does. At the end of that piece of thread was a needle and it went down and got caught in her throat. Thankfully, we were able to identify the cause of her discomfort and the veterinarian removed the needle and thread without incident. Now when I sew, there are no cats allowed anywhere near the pin cushion.
Here are a few sites I found quite fascinating about the cat’s tongue. Enjoy: https://www.catster.com/lifestyle/5-cat-facts-anatomy-tongue-awesome
https://www.catbehaviorassociates.com/your-cats-tongue/
Announcement
Tomorrow starts our 5 day blog tour. Watch this blog each day to see where we’ll be and what fun we’ll have. Spoiler alert: Tomorrow our behind-the-scenes tortie, Sophie, will be in the limelight. In fact, she’s being interviewed by another tortie, Mudpie. This is a rare appearance you won’t want to miss. I’ll post the details and the link here tomorrow morning.
