Forced Landings

In spite of the abilities for jumping that cats have and the carefulness with which they calculate the height and the distance before propelling themselves, they can commit and in fact they do errors jumping from a window splay or climbing on the table can end in a clumsy way with the hind legs hanging and the trunk inclining forward if the calculation is wrong. In this effort for getting up, we can observe how strong are the claws of their front legs and how powerful the hind legs.

If he finally doesn't make it, he will rotate and jump down disappointed. To give ambitious jumps from rough surfaces, as it is which inclined roods, usually provokes forced landings after which they tend to move and lick their claws in a compulsive way. Cats don't like to make errors and, after an incident of this kind, they try to regain their dignity as son as possible.

A good trimming, activity that a cat usually puts in practice to hide their deception, the nerves or frustrations, is often the best remedy.

Landing on their feet
Of all their athletic skills, their capacity for putting themselves in the right position in mid air is the one that calls more the attention. They attain it thanks to the vestibule apparatus, specially developed in felines, that is situated on the internal ear and that controls the head movements on space to maintain the equilibrium of the rest of the body..

It's a series of chambers and conduits connected among them that contain fluids, and millions of microscopic hairs with nervous termination that send signals to the brain. The movements of the head disturbs the current of the liquid, and by it the position of the hairs, change that is processed in the brain.

Each time there are rough changes of position between the body and the head, reflex answers are activated that correct the unbalanced condition.

When a cat falls, the vestibular apparatus send information to the brain for the muscles of the neck to move and to straighten the head horizontally. Just then, will the cat rotate and land on its feet with the back arching to diminish the effects of the fall.

Cats are born with this reflex and they very soon put it in practice while doing somersaults and playing with the mother and brothers.