Cats are extremely sensitive to touch. This is, in part, because they have skin receptors that fire continuously as long as they are being touched—meaning these cells don’t adapt to physical contact because the brain keeps getting a signal saying, “I am being touched.” This is in contrast to humans, whose sensory receptors, for example, do adapt to touch, as evidenced by the fact that we don’t consciously notice, moment by moment, that we are wearing clothes. The type of cells that cats have (Merkel cells) are ultrasensitive, more like those on your fingertips. Even their hair follicles are
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