section_path: Behavior/Grooming
section_name: Grooming
paragraph_text: Grooming
  
  Cats are known for spending considerable amounts of time licking their coats to keep them clean. The cat's tongue has backward-facing spines about 0.5 millimetre long, called lingual papillae, which contain keratin making them rigid. The papillae act like a hairbrush, and some cats, particularly long-haired cats, occasionally regurgitate sausage-shaped 2–3 cm (0.79–1.18 in) long hairballs of fur that have collected in their stomachs from grooming. Hairballs can be prevented with remedies that ease elimination of the hair through the gut, as well as regular grooming of the coat with a comb or stiff brush.