Why HeatherCats don't have whiskers

Last week I told you about the HeatherCats in a post. So far three of them have come out of the shadows and moved into my shop.
They all have a few things in common. They are fun, they are unique, they are made from beads ... and they have no whiskers.
Now you might ask why I'm pointing that out. There are other whiskerless cats out there. In fact the Bosse brass cat on my desk is one of them.

It has to do with one of the comments I got on Biskit's Bum. Several people told me they had a problem recognizing Biskit right away. Some of the comments were hilarious. I have to be honest, I had never thought it could be a problem as it's a position not unusual for my own cats although I don't have a picture from the same angle to prove it.
Anyway, one of them (not my cats ;-)) said it took her a second and she thought it might be easier to see if the whiskers from Heather's original painting were on the bracelet as well.

This reminded me of the first time I showed the pattern for Grouchycat to some beading friends.

I told them that I tried to include the whiskers, but that I just didn't like them. In this size they are too overwhelming if you work them into the pattern or do them in beads 3D style. The same goes for wire if you have to work it through the beads at several points to make it stay put as I wouldn't want wire ends to stick out.
I experimented this way and that way, but the end of it was that I decided that leaving them off completely was still the best solution.

That's the story why HeatherCats have no whiskers.

Next time I'm going to tell you the story of Grouchycat's yellow bird, and why there will probably not be a HeatherCat version of notquitesogrouchycat!