I love writing this blog and sharing stories and experiences about my fur filled life. Post ideas pop up all the time when I’m least expecting it. And then sometimes I’m given good ideas from good friends. Zelda and Geronimo’s mom recently sent me a great subject to post about: Pet Myths.
I’m sure you’ve noticed between random posts I have a few miniseries going on. I’ve chronicled our Sleepy Sundays, Training Diaries, our favorite things and poor Ares’s health issues. These are always fun because the subjects become familiar. Continuing to re-visit those story lines is like meeting up with a great friend you don’t get to see all the time. So why not add another one?
There’s a plethora of myths swirling around out there about our furry family members. Some reference an entire species like cats always landing on their feet. Some are more specific like Pit Bulls can lock their jaws. And some that venture into controversial territory like animals can see spirits.
Because I’m just me and I don’t have any fancy science degrees, a high tech lab or team of people to go all mythbusters and test these theories out, I won’t be proving or disproving anything. My plan is to present some factual information from internet research on the topic and then discuss my own relative experiences and opinions. Please remember that your experiences may differ drastically from mine. And my blog = opinions so you are welcome to disagree.
For today’s post I’m going to start with a myth I’m sure most, if not all of you have heard: Cats always land on their feet. I don’t remember when I first heard this, but I do remember the first time I saw it in action. My neighborhood friend had a cat named Prancer. I went to her house to play one day and when I walked in the house she called to me from upstairs that she’d be down in a minute. As I stood there in the foyer of the house I heard her footsteps above me and then she appeared at the top of the steps with Prancer in tow. She started down the steps and then just as she passed the section with walls on either side, she unceremoniously tossed Prancer over the railing. It happened so quickly I didn’t have a chance to be horrified, especially after Prancer landed with a soft thud on her feet and continued down the hallway like nothing had happened.
While throwing or dropping a cat just to watch it land on its feet is completely irresponsible and unfair, when it happens naturally, the cat will generally land on its feet. Why? Well, their bodies are just made that way. Mama cats don’t teach their kittens how to do this, it’s a built in safety mechanism they fully develop by the time they are 6 weeks old.
This superpower is actually often referred to as the cat righting reflex. From the second a cat begins to fall he immediately begins to shift his balance. Using his inner ear, his body determines the correct direction of up and his head turns first. With an arched back his spine then curves in line followed by his front legs, kept near his face to brace for impact. His back legs are pulled underneath him close to his body. This amazing and quick process was captured and dissected using countless still shots of falling cats in real time.
Just because cats possess this uncanny ability to right their bodies into the upward position mid-air does not mean they are never at risk for getting hurt from a fall. Older cats and cats with disabilities cannot as easily practice the cat righting reflex and are prone to greater injuries resulting from a fall. The height of the fall also determines the risk for injury. Cats that fall from a distance of 5 ft or shorter are actually more likely to get injured upon landing. The shorter distance decreases the time the cat has to right herself before landing and doesn’t allow her the opportunity to relax her body and spread out (like a parachute) to lessen the impact to her joints.
So why aren’t other animals or even humans able to work this magic when falling? Cats do not have collar bones and they do have 30 vertebra while humans have just 24. This makes them insanely flexible, which is why us cat owners often marvel at how ours squished himself out the door when it was barely open wide enough to fit a big toe.
Okay so the research says that cats process the ability to orient their bodies upright and land on their feet. Princess Piper proves this theory time and time again. As far as I know she’s only ever landed feet first, but she also very rarely falls.
Little O on the other hand falls fairly often. And he doesn’t always land on his feet. Since I brought him home at 4 months old he’s not been your typical house cat. He’s not shy or skittish when visitors he’s never met come over. He plays with the dogs and isn’t afraid to cuddle with them. He licks visible human skin affectionately with his sandpaper tongue. And he’s kind of clumsy.
I know balance has to do with the inner ear. The fluid level helps the body maintain equilibrium. I was concerned that maybe our new orange furball had an ear infection. Nope. He’s just special.
O does demonstrate many feline behaviors like scaling screen doors, leaping from one piece of furniture to the next and walking along the edges of counters. But unlike our resident female miss Piper, he’s not graceful and tends to slip or trip and fall. About 75% of the time he does land on his feet. But the other 25%, he lands awkwardly splayed out like a cat pancake. Luckily he has yet to get hurt and I don’t suspect he will. He is young and resilient and there really isn’t anything we can do about his clumsiness anyway.
In conclusion, I accept this one as fact. Our Little O would probably be a data outlier in research because well, he’s just his own category of cat. But Piper, ever perfect in all feline abilities, always lands on all four of her pampered paws.
Are your cats like Piper or does anyone have a misfit like O?
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