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Some people claim that their domestic cats have black whiskers. Can that be? ...Read the full article
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Christine Mac from Calgary, Canada writes: I have 4 cats & all of them have black whiskers! 1 of them is the purest black cat I've ever seen, 2 of them are 99% black & the fourth is a tortie that has 2 white whiskers & the rest are black.
Perhaps a good explanation stems from the witch hunts of the 17 & 1800s... black cats were associated with witches & the devil, so they were killed. A black cat was spared if it had at least one iota of white - a whisker, or even a single hair would do. So many of them were killed in this frenzy that cats with that combination of genes were nearly wiped out. Hard to pass on the 'black whisker' gene when you're dead!- Posted 11/08/08 at 10:13 PM EST | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
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diane marie from calgary, Canada writes: Christine:-- We, too, have 4 cats (or do they have us?). Two (all black; all dark gray) of the four have all-black whiskers. One has a few white whiskers but the rest are black - she's a ginger cat (most ginger cats, apparently, are male). The fourth (white with black dots) has all white whiskers. I think they'd better conduct a new study.
- Posted 15/08/08 at 8:58 PM EST | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
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