Cute Online Jigsaw Puzzle of Funny Cat Sticking its Tongue out like Albert Einstein

Like all cats, this cute kitty has a tongue which is actually a versatile multi-purpose instrument. Backward-pointing barbs called papillae on the tongue allow it to scrape meat from the bones of any animal unfotunate enough to become its prey. Those same barbs are used when the cat is licking itself to groom. They help to remove loose fur and debris. The cat's saliva when grooming additionally serves to cool its body in hot weather, and an antiseptic in the saliva helps to keep its fur clean and smelling nice. All of that licking is a cat's version of having a bath without having to dunk itself into a pool of water.

Despite the antiseptic substance in a cat's tongue, it is not completely bacteria-free, and a cat should be discouraged from licking wounds, as their saliva is not sterile, cannot cure infection and could introduce germs into the wound. Furthermore, the actual act of licking could scrape away and make the wound larger because of the roughness of the cat's tongue.

Added to all this licking, grooming and meat-scraping, the cat's tongue acts as a spoon when drinking, not just figuratively but almost literally. If you look at a cat's tongue as it dips it under water or milk to drink, you'll see that it really does curl to make a spoon-like shape. Sophisticated muscles enable your kittie to do this. A cat will normally take 3 or 4 slurps of a liquid between each swallow (err, wait a minute, that didn't sound right....that's swallow as in gulp, not the bird!).