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The cat wants to jump

Eight interesting facts about cats. For those who thought that it was just fur jumping onto the closet. No. There is calculation, physics and a little predatory management.

Ink illustration: cat preparing to jump

The cat wants to jump. This is not a desire. This is a production necessity.

A person sees a closet, a window sill, a refrigerator and says: “No need.” The cat sees a vertical map of the city, an evacuation route, an observation point and a place where you can lie down so that everyone starts to get nervous.

Felines do not live in apartments. They're doing field testing there.
  1. Jumping is not a show off, but a basic profession.
    A domestic cat can jump to a height of approximately several times its own length. Therefore, the closet is not furniture for her, but the second floor without an elevator. The person at this moment looks like a management company: he stands below and explains why this is not possible.
  2. The mustache is not decor, but a technical control department.
    The whiskers help the cat read space, air movement and nearby objects. Therefore, when a cat looks at the gap, it does not “doubt”. She puts a face to construction expertise.
  3. Night vision is the "city after 23:00" mode.
    Cat's eyes work well in low light, and the reflective layer behind the retina helps make use of available light once again. Hence this view from the corridor: not mystical, just built-in lighting.
  4. The cat has almost nothing to eat sweets.
    In domestic cats, one of the sweet taste receptor genes is broken. Therefore, cake for her is not a holiday, but a soft object that a person for some reason protects.
  5. Purring doesn't always mean "I'm happy."
    Cats may purr not only from pleasure, but also when stressed, in pain, or during recovery. That is, this is not a soundtrack to coziness. Sometimes this is an internal renovation without a contractor being announced.
  6. They know how to fall better than how to behave decently.
    The cat's righting reflex helps to turn around in the air and meet the ground with its paws. This is not immortality or a guarantee of safety, but it looks blatant as an engineering trick.
  7. Not all felines hate water.
    A fishing cat normally lives near water, swims and catches prey in places where an ordinary apartment cat would ask for a written explanation from the housing office.
  8. The tail is not a mood, but a stabilizer with character.
    The tail helps balance when jumping and turning. Therefore, a tail that nervously moves from side to side is not just “the cat is angry.” This is the stabilization system filing a complaint.
The cat does not disturb the order. She checks whether there was order at all.

What should a person do

Nothing heroic. Remove the glass from the edge, give it a normal vertical position, do not argue with the mustache and do not try to explain to the predator that the window sill is not part of the living area.

The cat still wants to jump. And if she doesn’t jump, it means she’s already jumped, you just missed the main city event as usual.

If the cat is looking up, the decision has already been made.
Sources of facts: Chewy Vet Review on Cat Jumping, VCA Hospitals about vibrissae, Merck Veterinary Manual about tapetum lucidum, PLOS Genetics about the sweet receptor, Scientific American on purring, VCA Hospitals about righting reflex, Smithsonian National Zoo about the fishing cat And San Diego Zoo about the fishing cat. The illustration was regenerated in ink style.
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