CATS - though by no means averse to being admired or even worshipped - rarely choose to make exhibitions of themselves. Luckily there are wise and devoted curators scattered throughout the land who are willing and able to do the necessary - and Claws, currently installed at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, is a really fascinating, informative, and fun celebration of the cat family in all its many forms.

You get a growly welcome the moment you step inside the tiger's mouth that yawns, complete with huge, curving incisors, at the entrance. Past the

business-like molars and you're just about face to whiskers with a display that lets you see things from a cat's perspective - peep through the eyeholes (some conveniently low-set so as tinies can join in) and you experience the world as it looks to any mog in the street. It's curiously devoid of colour. Cats, it emerges, deal more in shapes than shades when it comes to reading their surroundings or identifying objects. And movement, more than anything, is what counts when it comes to the pounce. So much for all those lovingly-bought toys in tiddles's favourite red . . .

This is just the start of a brilliantly detailed, cunningly- planned foray into feline territory where the emphasis is on feeling and seeing and finding out for yourself just what goes on under the fur, and in the day-to-day existence of cats large, small, wild, domestic and - very important this - endangered. There are some 36, maybe 38, recognised species of large or wild cat spread out across our globe and this exhibition really succeeds in making you aware of this rich diversity, even as it places such animals in a context that also embraces the domestic tabby and Maisie the Kilted Kitten of storybook fame . . . and a sabre-toothed tiger that comes roaringly to life from out the darknesses of the primitive past!

Claws was originally conceived and mounted by the Hancock Museum in Tyne and Wear. For its sojourn in Glasgow the exhibition has been extended, including various interactive elements specially designed and installed by the Glasgow team. The result is an absorbing mix, not just of facts and fictions about felines, but also of the changing styles of museum presentation - particularly the increasing use of hands-on material and sophisticated computer imagery where once everything was a matter of specimens in glass cases and artists' impressions, sometimes more fanciful than accurate.

There's so much to see and take in, that one visit - even a long one - merely scratches the surface of Claws. I've been twice already and haven't exhausted all the interconnecting links on the ``Virtual Cat'' programme (which ranges from big cats in the wild, to cats in art, and from the body language of domestic kitties to folklore and myth) let alone absorbed all of the data contained in the displays. And I'm still pitting my wits against the cat quiz on yet another computer programme which also features an intriguing cat scan.

Elsewhere in the exhibition there are question-and-answer displays that will helpfully teach you how to interpret the cat's miaow - the sound effects are very realistic - as well as the underlying meaning of a bushed tail or a flattened ear.

I love the way this exhibition works so well on so many levels. Children and adults alike are drawn, so effortlessly, into finding out really quite complex information about habits and habitat - differences between the digestions of domestic cats and dogs, for instance, or in the hunting practices of various cats, big and small. Pull open a sliding drawer and there - snuggled in foam rubber - are these cat snacks on sticks: birds and tiny rodents, all pounced upon by one of the curator's own cats and brought home in triumph before being added to Kelvingrove's resources. Pull open another drawer and you get the other extreme of hunting - fur collars and cuffs, made from leopardskin, to indulge a whim of fashion. Again and again, through the juxtaposition of objects or text, the message comes across engagingly, entertainingly, but always informatively: mankind is fascinated by cats, not always

to the benefit of the animal. At times there's the urge to worship them (as in Egypt), have them as pets (there's a mog of the month competition for the public), want to capture and possess and even wear the wildest of them (as the acidly entitled Fur For Fools' display brings home to us).

n Claws runs until the end of March, with a lively calendar of related events that include illustrated talks, puppet shows, films, and face-painting sessions. Details and bookings, from 0141 287 2660. The museum shop also has a host of covetable cata-phernalia. In all, the cats whiskers for cat lovers of all ages.