Why a Cat Lights on Its Feet

1896

An experimenter recently undertook to discover why a cat invariably fell on its feet. He finds that a cat always falls on its feet providing it has a distance of a yard to fall in and enable to make a half turn in the air, so as get its feet undermost. It holds its paws vertically and manages to preserve this position during the rest of its fall, in spite of the initial movement of rotation taken by its body.

The mechanical explanation is simply that the animal, by thrusting forward its left limb, shifts the center of gravity of the whole body so as to make revolve upon the axis of the spine until the feet reach the ground. Moreover, a cat does not hurt itself by all from a height, not because it invariably falls on its feet, but because the structure of a cat's back and spine is extremely flexible. The muscles of its legs are extraordinary strong and numerous, and, further, it has elastic pads or cushions consisting of a mass of fibrous tissue and fat on all its feet, seven in each forepaw and five in each hind paw. — Chicago News.