Sometimes it's hard to decide which gift from your cat is your favorite. Is it the half-eaten beetle, the pool of vomit, or the hairballs?

Like it or not, most cat owners contend with hairballs at some point: Domestic cats spend up to half their waking hours grooming themselves.

But, we wondered, does the same thing happen to wildcats? (Read about surprising things you never knew about your cat.)

All cat species, wild or not, get hairballs, Letitia Fanucchi, an animal behaviorist at Washington State University, says via email. Grooming is not only soothing for domestic cats, it keeps them smooth and sleek. "They need to be sneaky and undetectable by prey, so keeping themselves clean helps."

But