It’s Friday, and we all deserve felids after a hard week. Here are two from YouTube, showing cat acrobatics of a kind unknown to me.
Our cat Piggy doing her daily routine of walking down the fridge
Our cat Piggy walking down the fridge but pausing half way. She must have super grippy paws! She performs her fridge walk on a daily basis although I have no idea how she first figured it out. She is seven years old but still acts like a kitten. There is never a dull moment with Piggy in the house!
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I’ll see your felid and raise you a trip to your favorite microbrewery. Or mine. But when I get home I’ll go over and feed my neighbors cats (which they got in Senegal when in the Peace Corps) since they’re away in Iowa house-hunting. But don’t expect to ever see them turn up here. My neighbors will be first to agree that these two have absolutely nothing to recommend them for your felid pages.
Any spelunkers out there will know this maneuver as “chimneying”. L
But one doesn’t usually do it head down.
One isn’t usually a cat.
British cavers would generally call the manoeuvre “back and footing”.
@Gregory : not usually, but in caving pretty much anything is possible.
@Marella : as (IIRC) a “splendid” Burgess Shale arthropod, you’re probably right in not “usually” being a cat. But I’m sure you’ll manage it sometimes.
It seems that Jerry Coyne and Greta Christina are the two freethought bloggers we can class as “catheists”.
In one video it looks like the cat is pressing her back against the wall for traction.
Yes, that is what it looked like to me, for both videos.
Spidercat! Wonder if she shoots webbing out of her paws?
Grabity? Don’t need no steeenkin’ grabity.
Yes, the cat is wedged between the fridge and the wall. The legs are not extended normally.
As Lynda Calhoun said, the cat’s chimneying. Climbers do it, though more usually to get up things. However, they rely on any bumps or roughness to help. The gap Piggy’s climbing down is parallel-sided so she has no bumps to help her, and her back will be generating very little friction with the wall, so she must be relying entirely on friction between her paws and the fridge. And to generate enough friction to resist her weight, she must be pushing very hard against the fridge. Quite an impressive performance.
That’s so very cool. Coming from a behavior analysis background, the variation in behavior that animals exhibit(humans too)is so fascinating.
Imagine these creatures in the wild, and the adaptive behaviors that arise in response to their environment. I’ve become quite fascinated with evolutionary Psych, although I am of the opinion that most EP’ers are going about it all wrong.
Another thought- Animals of all kinds exhibit these “creative” behaviors. Its one of those things that makes exceptionalists (i.e., xtian, human)jump up and down when you point out that we’re not the only species capable of it. The variability of behavior is necessary for evolution to work. Creativity n humans is just an extension of previously acquired traits put to new uses. It ain’t “god given”.
Atheist cat says-
http://www.goddiscussion.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Cat-CatLookingIntoCameraAtheistCatS.jpg
That’s so very cool. Coming from a Behavior Analysis background, the variations in behavior that animals exhibit(humans too)is so fascinating.
Imagine these creatures in the wild, and the adaptive behaviors that arise in response to their environment. I’ve become quite fascinated with evolutionary Psych, although I am of the opinion that most EP’ers are going about it all wrong.
Another thought- Animals of all kinds exhibit these ”creative” behaviors. Its one of those things that makes exceptionalists (i.e., xtian, human)jump up and down when you point out that we’re not the only species capable of it. The variability of behavior is necessary for evolution to work. Creativity in humans is just an extension of previously acquired traits put to new uses. It ain’t ”god given” and that drives them nuts.
Atheist cat says-
http://www.goddiscussion.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Cat-CatLookingIntoCameraAtheistCatS.jpg
I know how she does it! She’s using the wall to get a grip. Kitty!