But then I was thinking as I was uploading this photo . . a cat has whiskers for a reason - to warn him when he's getting too close to something or heading into a hole that's too small for him. They are, in essence, curb feelers. Now Blackwell has become a very big cat, though as I was trying to weigh him the other day he seemed to be only 17 pounds, which isn't really all that big, I guess. But if he's pretty wide, he probably needs extra long curb feelers. I wonder if whisker length varies from cat to cat to accomodate their different sizes.I didn't come to a real conclusion on that. But I think my theory may be correct. The whiskers have to be sort of like what people are saying is wrong with our economy - too big to fail.