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Why do cats wash themselves, while dogs don鈥檛? (continued)

Adam Harding
Porthcawl, Bridgend, UK

Both dogs and cats secrete oils into their fur that interact with sunlight to produce vitamin D, which they ingest when they lick it off their coat. It could be that cats need a lot more of it than dogs.

Trevor Lowe
Melbourne, Australia

Dogs do wash themselves and frequently pick the most inopportune time to clean their private parts (visitors/grandma present). Cats may be more fastidious and more frequent cleaners. The fact that dogs groom themselves less often may be where the phrase 鈥測ou dirty dog鈥� came from.

Gavin Spickett
Prudhoe, Northumberland, UK

I read with interest the earlier correspondence you carried about this question (22 July).

It isn鈥檛 true that dogs don鈥檛 wash. We have a springer spaniel who hates being dirty: he avoids mud and puddles and doesn鈥檛 roll in filthy things, although he does like swimming in rivers and the sea (but only when it is hot). He spends a lot of time washing all parts of his coat that are in reach of his tongue, as well as adjusting the fur with his front teeth. He also washes his face like a cat by licking his paws and then rubbing his face.

We believe that he may have been a cat in a previous incarnation and therefore think that he is proof of Buddhist reincarnation. The higher being would obviously have a sense of humour to reincarnate a cat as a dog!

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