Understanding the cat’s body

The Cat’s Poking

The pads on the cat’s forefoot are quite sharp. The shaking and vibration felt by the pads will trigger the cat’s hunting instinct, and in turn making it do its signature action of poking.

Cat poking often occurs during hunting. When a cat gains an overwhelming advantage, it will also stab the prey from a high position, repeatedly confirming the condition of the prey.

Understanding the Cat’s Hunting Moves

Let’s take a cat sneaking on a bird in the wild as an example!

At first, the cat will lower its body and move silently in the bushes while watching the low-flying bird intently.

The cat will seize the right moment and strike out in an instant to knock the bird out. When the bird fell to the ground motionless, it would lean in cautiously.

At this time, the cat will slowly extend its front foot to touch the bird’s body, and then starts to fiddle it.

At this time, if the bird still has the possibility to counterattack, the cat will temporarily jump away and rethink what to do next.

If the opponent is a more aggressive snake, when the prey still has the possibility to fight back, the cat will instantly bounce one meter away after being frightened.

If the bird is still motionless, the cat will strengthen the force of the front foot and repeatedly poke it to confirm that the bird is completely unconscious.

Just like when facing new toys and food, the cat will do repeated poking. This is a way for the cat to confirm whether the things in front of it are safe.

After several times of poking, the cat will be assured, “Well, it seems that I have finished it.” Next, the cat will approach the bird with its nose for close confirmation.

At this point, the cat still hasn′t given up on its vigilance, and will continue to observe the vibration with its whiskers. Once it notices that the bird is still making weak movements, the cat will continue poking it to ensure its safety.

The cat’s nose can sense temperature while smelling. After confirming that the bird is really “dead”, the cat will grab the bird with its sharp teeth, and carry it to a dark corner to enjoy the feast.

This is why cats will repeatedly poke at lifeless furniture or toys when they are in an unfamiliar environment. After all, this behavior is derived from the cat’s hunting instinct.

Since cats are solitary animals, they can hardly survive once a danger occurs, so they have cultivated the character of being careful and cautiously confirming the safety of everything.

The Cat’s Jab

When the cat is attacking or refusing, it will make an upward jab. In a slower mode, it is usually a social expression that implies rejection.

However, in the eyes of humans, this is a rather friendly action to interact with humans. Gradually, the cat also adapts to this action, so it may also be a friendly expression.

Poking and Jabbing — Unique Behaviors of Cats

Poking and jabbing are unique behaviors of cats. Dogs cannot make similar actions. The main reason is that the dog’s clavicles have gradually degenerated and have become smaller, so the forefoot can no longer move left and right accurately.

In the process of evolution, dogs often need to run long distances in order to search for prey in the grass field. In consideration of saving energy, the dog’s body decided to enhance the ability of front and back movement of the limbs, discarding the possibility of moving left and right. After all, at the moment of running, slightly opening the limbs left and right may cause unnecessary physical energy loss.

For animals that need to run constantly, the most suitable choice is to reduce the collarbones and allow the front feet to only move forward and backward. For other animals, the clavicles of the horse have even disappeared completely. According to the evolution of the skeleton structure, horses are more suitable for long-distance travel than dogs.

Then, let’s take a look at the evolution of cats.

For cats that inhabit the forest, their hunting targets are mice and lizards on the ground, frogs and fish by the stream, bird nests and squirrels on trees, etc. Cats do not need to run long distances during hunting. All they need is to sprint for short distances.

In addition, the cat’s natural enemies are various kinds of canines that can’t climb trees, such as foxes, wolves, etc., so the cat has developed the ability to climb trees.

Therefore, during the process of evolution, the cat retains the clavicle that connects the forefoot to the chest and supports the shoulder, so its forefoot can raise up freely and poke at any angle.

Among other animals, hamsters also have clavicles, so we can often see cute movements of squirrels or hamsters holding and chewing fruits.

The Cat’s Tail

When the cat quietly passes by our feet, it often touches us lightly with its tail. While it seems inadvertent, in another way it somehow seems to be deliberately attracting attention, which is quite puzzling.

The cat’s tail is composed of 18 to 23 bones and has 12 muscles. In addition to swinging back and forth, it can also be used to express the cat’s current mood.

The Cat’s Tail is Easily Injured

The cat′s tail is closely connected to the spinal cord and the nervous system of the excretory organs. Once the tail is injured, it may affect the mobility of the hind feet. In severe cases, it may even affect urination.

Therefore, accidentally stepping on, or pulling the cat′s tail, as well as being caught by the door, etc., must all be strictly avoided.

The Balance Experiment of the Cat

For the cat, one of the most important functions of the tail is to maintain balance. Its importance could even be understood as: the length of the tail determines the cat′s balancing ability.

Set a wooden strip on the paper box, and let the cat walk upon it, you can perceive subtle swinging of its tail. When the wood strips become thinner and become roughly equal to the width of the forefoot paw pads, the swinging of the tail becomes more intense. In this situation, cats with short tails will have bigger difficulty walking.

The cat has a very independent personality and actively maintains its body balance under any situation so that it can respond to emergencies whenever needed. Even if we hold the cat in both hands, the cat will secretly maintain its balance in its own way.

When we’re holding the cat, slowly take turns tilting it 15 degrees left and right, and we can observe the cat’s tail swinging in the opposite direction of our movements.

This is the small movement of the cat using its tail to maintain balance at any time.

The “Floating” Capability of the Cat

Generally, the width of the upper edge of an interior door is about 3.5 cm, which is equivalent to the width of a cat′s paw pads, so the cat can easily walk or even sleep on it leisurely.

A traditional TV screen is about 2 cm thick. Cats will feel a little strenuous standing there. In addition to taking particularly slow and cautious steps, you can also find the cat′s intense sway of the tail hanging underneath to maintain its balance.

However, in recent years, the screen has become thinner and thinner, and the width at the top is close to 0.5 cm, which is more than a cat can challenge. Therefore, the classic scene of a cat standing on the screen will gradually disappear in our lives in the future.

The Cat’s Nose

Everyone agrees that the dog has a very keen sense of smell, what about the cat?

People who think cats have a keen sense of smell seem to be a little unsure. Even after meticulous search for information, few experts have discussed the cat′s sense of smell, nor have they published a research on how sensitive cats′ sense of smell is.

Unwilling to Cooperate with Experiments

The truth is: cats don′t cooperate with olfactory experiments at all.

In general olfactory experiments, dogs are trained to memorize certain tastes. Once a new sample is taken out, the dog will move forward to smell it, and once it senses the same smell again, it will “woof” to express that it smells it, and a high percentage of dogs can achieve the same experimental results.

But the cat is different. Not only are they unwilling to cooperate smelling, even if they sense it, they are unwilling to express it with its voice. Even by observing the cat’s movements instead, there is no clear clue. Merely one or two cats cooperated, and the credibility of the research could not be obtained.

Therefore, it can only be speculated that the cat′s sense of smell should be several times stronger than that of humans, but there is no credible research to prove how strong it actually is.

Theoretically, a cat’s sense of smell will be close to that of a dog.

It is generally recognized that the sensitivity of dogs′ sense of smell is 1 million times that of humans, which refers to the general smell. If it is meat or fat that dogs love, the sensitivity of smell can even be increased by 100 times — that is, 100 million times that of human smell.

For an average police dog, it has about 200 million olfactory cells, which is 40 times more than that of humans (about 50 million). The number of olfactory cells of cats are close to that of dogs. It is inferred that cats′ sense of smell should be close to that of dogs and far better than that of humans.

By the way, when you open a canned cat food, the reason why the cat suddenly appears excited is actually because of its sensitive hearing, not the sense of smell.

The Cat’s Tongue

The cat′s tongue only has taste cells at the tip, bottom and both sides. As for the middle of the tongue is mostly covered with special spinous structures.

The spines themselves do not have taste cells and cannot feel the taste of food. The barbed structure with the tip of the spines facing the throat is mainly used for grooming, drinking water, or removing pieces of meat from the bones of prey.

The choosy taste that is rarely perceived

Humans have five major tastes: sour, sweet, bitter, salty and umami. They can also feel some metallic and fatty tastes, but our senses of these tastes are not as sensitive as our senses of the five basic tastes.

However, when it comes to the cat’s sense of taste, it still lacks consensus. Like the olfactory experiment, the standards of the arrogant cat’s likes and dislikes changes easily, and it is impossible to obtain results that everyone can accept.

It is generally believed that cats are more sensitive to three tastes — sour, bitter, and salty. However, cats are so picky about water that many people agree: Oh my God, cats could understand the taste of water!

Why Cats Love to Drink Dirty Water

Many people will notice that cats at home like to drink all kinds of weird water, with the sole exception of clean water prepared by humans.

When the cat is out of sight, it may have sneaked away to drink dirty water. Water from fish tanks, toilet water, and potted plant water may all get drunk. Even if stopped at the scene, the cat will still take another sip before turning back.

Nearly every book advocates that cats should drink fresh and clean water, and the water should be replaced regularly and the water bowl cleaned. But why do cats still like to drink dirty water?

Because all these suggestions have neglected the cat’s sense of smell.

Tap water is usually added with a lot of chemicals for disinfection, such as common chlorine and ozone. These chemicals need to be boiled for a certain period of time, or removed using a reverse osmosis filter. The general activated carbon filter cannot be completely removed.

Even clean water which its taste humans can’t perceive is unbearable for cats’ sensitive noses. Should scented detergent remain during the cleaning of the water bowl, the situation will be even worse.

One is clean water with a chemical odor, and the other is dirty at first glance, but at least familiar with bacteria or food spoilage. It is not so odd for cats to choose the dirty one with a “natural flavor”.

In order to make the cat willing to drink clean water, the water bowl must be rinsed several times until there isn′t any detergent smell left in the water bowl.

Fresh tap water can be left for a period of time, and give for the cat to drink after the chemicals have escaped. If the water bowl is placed on the path that the cat usually passes by, it will get used to drinking the prepared clean water over time.

The Cat’s Eating Action

The cat will have a particular action of smelling the food before starting to eat it, as opposed to a dog directly rushing to dig in.

In the beginning, the cat will slowly approach the food, then approach it with its whiskers, and finally smell it with its nose.

At this time, the cat is thinking: should I start eating? Or should I ignore and step over it? The reason for the careful evaluation is that cats need to confirm whether the food in front of them is fresh in the wilderness.

For cats, the food in front of them is not obtained by hunting, so the freshness of the food needs special evaluation.

After checking the smell, the cat will use the tip of its tongue to check again.

The cat will first put some food on the tip of its tongue, and use saliva to dissolve the ingredients in the food to confirm whether it suits its appetite.

If it tastes strange, the cat will decide “Oh! What on earth is this disgusting thing? There′s no way I′m going to eat it”, and then, turns its head and leaves.

The cat begins to eat only after it judges the food in its mouth “Well, it seems to be okay!”. After all, it′s not food it hunted for itself, so it′s probably better than nothing!

Catnip — A Plant that Excites Cats

Certain plants will make cats feel excited, the most famous of which is “catnip”. Almost all types of cats will respond to catnip to varying degrees.

The typical reaction of cats encountering catnip is that their eyes get blurred and fall into a trance, which reminds us of how humans look after taking drugs. The power of catnip is not only effective for cats, even the majestic lion can’t resist it!

When a cat notices the mysterious plant — catnip in front of its eyes, it will smell it gracefully with its nose at first, become agitated, and then start licking, biting, chewing, and even rubbing the catnip with its cheeks and chin.

Next, the cat will twist its body and roll around, making various meows or purring sounds. If it is more emotional, it might even jump into the air and churn. Even cats with super calm personalities will become enthusiastic just because of catnip.

However, the effect only lasts for 10 minutes.

Catnip is not addictive to cats. Cats will gradually calm down within 5–15 minutes after exposure, as if nothing has happened. And for the next 2 hours, the cat will no longer be interested in catnip.

More:

What are You up to, Cat? 1: An in-depth introduction to everything about cats, from anatomy to behavior
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094QT46BP

What are You up to, Cat? 2: An in-depth introduction to everything about cats, from growth to moods
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B095NXC848