A cat slowly nudges a full glass of water to the edge of a precipice, relishing the moments of anticipation until, inescapably, gravity’s pull slams home with a crash and a splash. At Tabby’s Place, it’s more likely to be unwanted fish mush landing with a thud and a goosh than a glass of water. But, the priciple is the same.
The bigger picture is that cats’ thing with gravity is not limited to their own fascination with Newton’s law of universal gravitation. Humans have a related, dual interest in cats and gravity. The first is obvious because cats, man. The second is multifaceted. Cats’ fascination with gravity is a source of much amusement, frustration, and many, many clean-ups in all the aisles and across many types of flooring. Humans’ fascination with cats’ ability to lasso gravity in such a way as to forever be landing on their feet has led to some interesting, if questionable, experimentation resulting is a panoply of pictures and videos.
Some time ago, fabulous volunteer Sandy S. brought an interesting article to my attention regarding this subjects of cats’ landings. A physicist with a flair for writing delved into prior experiments studying how cats manage to find themselves on their feet after falling. Photographs from the 1890s were taken to understand the phenomenon. Yet, what the pictures really demonstrated was the very then-limited ability to capture the very many movements involved in the feat of the feet, landing on them, that is. Flash forward 50 or so years, and people started engineering additional questionable experiments. By catapulting cats into the troposphere, humans hoped to learn how to emulate felines for the betterment of space exploration.
Without making excuses for poor judgement regarding the treatment of animals, as with any other species so afflicted by zero G, cats just kind of drift around in a whimsically adorable way. Today’s cats find this to be hilarious, yet also as deplorable as vegan cheese and low-fat bologna. Tabby’s Place cats regularly guffaw over our species’ fascination with their species’ overall, but specifically with their apparent defiance of gravity.
The thing is, cats actually come equipped with zero gravity. It’s built into the feline formula. Okay, different gravity. Cats are born with a distinctive lack of seriousness (except when it comes to fish mush and brushes, although individual opinions vary greatly where both are concerned). Take for example the lobby cats.
During the recent ringworm-related limitations to visits, antics at the doors to Quinn’s Corner increased 100,000,000 fold. Yes, it’s a very big number. It’s also exactly precise. There are witnesses. Ruchi, especially, would do backflips for the feeders with their beloved blue trays in normal times. Colonel Peabody is also quite the fan. During the not-so-normal time, the period of awaiting the final recheck lasted for a full eternity and a half. For the cats, such eons of relative isolation required doubling down on silliness. Lobby cats thrive on attention, hence their being located in the typically high-traffic area.
When human pass-throughs were greatly reduced to help keep all the cats fungus-free (and to limit slogging through anti-ringworm pans of wet goosh and dealing with soaking socks and the resultant chill), the loveable lobbyists suffered collaterally from reduced attentions and affections. Ramped up clowning was the response. This was undertaken with absolutely zero gravity. Such things included ample door dashing and excessive displays of adorableness. Refer to Corduroy for any questions of cuteness.
For his part, Hips is always mildly miffed at the ways in which the peoples bypass the cats’ doorway blockages and dance around attempts and flying freely in off-limits directions. Even so, the tailless war-zone survivor remains sans gravity. Hips is as light in his heart as he is on his feet. Rule-defying is his way of expressing his love and appreciation for everything staff and volunteers provide for him daily. Restrictions and constrictions don’t suit Hips, who is the reason the gate in Jonathan’s office doorway is so high. Talk about gravity-defying! Talk about defying all that early experiments thought about why cats land on their feet. Tails, shmails! Hips doesn’t need such a lengthy appendage to find his feet beneath him. He always nails the landing and giggles to himself as he launches off into the stratosphere.
The key take-away from this heavy discourse could be that gravity is a weighty subject. But, the pull of gravity on the hearts of the cats at Tabby’s Place in no way outweighs the joys that tickle them daily. They thrive on endless love and complete medical care, including the horrors of ringworm treatment and extended protective protocols. They chuckle happily as they goof around in order to delight devoted sponsors, stellar staff, vibrant volunteers, and, most of all, themselves.
With zero gravity, the cats of Tabby’s Place will continue their gravity experiments (Plop! Skoooosh!). And, no matter how much ringworm or anything else tries to turn them or their world upside down, no problem. The cats will always land on their feet.