Mani-Pedi or a Pawdicure?

I just learned from reading today’s New York Times about another forthcoming book that is required reading: Zoobiquity: What Animals Can Teach Us About Health and the Science of Healing, by Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers.


I think non-scientifically about this subject often. In fact, I came across an artwork recently that reinforces one of the authors’ many enlightening theses:


“Grooming represents a hard-wired drive, one that’s evolved over millions of years with the positive benefits of keeping us clean and binding us socially.”


Did you know that cats have long subscribed to a favorite girly-girl, super-grooming indulgence: pedicures? The image from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (at right), Popular Hotspring Spa for Cats, by the 19th-century Japanese artist Utagawa Kunitoshi, puts a fine point on the shared animal-human appreciation for, shall we say, a polished form of cleanliness.


Query of the Day: Do your cats like to have pawdicures?