One clear difference between us kitties and our caretakers shows up in relation to our drinking methods. I’ve seen the humans grab hold of these cup or glass things, put them up to their open mouths, and let the liquid flow in like a river running into a canyon! Hey, that’s sort of cool! How do you do that anyway?
First of all, I don’t know how I could get my paws around those things and then lift them up in the correct way to be able to swallow down the contents. Furthermore, it’d make me afraid to do this since I would most surely be drowned by such a huge, continuous stream entering my body in such a short time period.
Wow, that’s quite a technique you’ve got mastered there. I’m rather impressed.
As you’ve surely observed, our own manner of drinking is a much slower and patient one, with our using the well-known and very respectable lapping method. You’ve seen that, right? Pretty cool too, I’m sure you would agree.
We typically lap at an amazing rate of up to four times a second. That’s pretty fast, huh? But each individual intake is very small in terms of the quantity.
The lapping involves a highly skillful tongue action where we touch the tip of it to the desired refreshment and then quickly pull it back in order to bring the liquid upwards and inwards. In this way, we get a good drink just as you do and our bodies are satisfied, but we take much more time to do so in comparison with your splash-it-down method.
Chugging or lapping? In the end, I guess it doesn’t matter which technique we all use as long as we get what we need to keep us energized and healthy. Thus, it’s bottoms-up or tongues-up and we’re both happy!