Amazing Cats: Bump Stops

[Mollycat]

Have you ever wondered what that extra pad was doing a little way up your cat's front leg, opposite the dew claw?

You may have heard them referred to as "bump stops" and been told they are in case of skids and high jump landing. Dogs have them too. But are they really needed? How often, really, would this part of the leg ever touch the floor? If it's not needed, evolution will eventually let it die out. Bump stops are still very much here.

To understand why, look at your own hand. The pads immediately behind your fingers are equivalent to the cat's large pad. The four little pads are your fingers. The dew claw is your thumb, and this is the claw to watch for sign of overgrowth, or ingrowing. Not all cats manage to use this one when scratching and it can easily become a problem. If your cat will let you touch it, between the bump stop and the main pad the fur is supersoft and you can feel it "dishes" in and flexes slightly. You might even be able to feel that there are lots of very small bones running lengthways down this part of the leg. That is the palm of the hand. Now you can see that the ump stop pad is a development of the heel of the hand.

Which doesn't show the need for it. No - but a slow motion film of a cat landing from a modest height does, and here's one I found earlier:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xN12kR ... SlowMoGuys
It's horrible and fascinating all at once, isn't it?

You're welcome.

[Ruth B]

That film is really interesting, and makes me so glad i don't see that every time any of my cats jump off something.

Another thought, one that has come to me recently as Saturn has started to come into the bathroom and sit on the windowsill while I'm on the loo, is when he jumps on to the windowsill, he always gets his front paws just over the edge and his back paws stay on the wall just below the sill itself, then when he can see it is clear he manages to move the front paws enough for him to get the back ones on. I would imagine that those back paws on the wall would act as excellent springs if he found there wasn't wasn't room and would give him the push he needs to twist and turn and jump down again all in one fluid movement. I wouldn't be surprised if he would use those pads on his back paws to help with that type of movement as well, particularly on a nice slick surface like bathroom tiles, i'm not going to risk blocking his access to the area, and trying to film it though.

[Mollycat]

Ah Ruth no need, the same people have also filmed the same cat "jumping" up - if you can still call it jumping once you see it slowed down!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=705OzYq ... SlowMoGuys

and I have just spotted this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BKsV2r ... SlowMoGuys

[Ruth B]

Not quite the style of jump I was thinking about, Saturn gets to the windowsill all in one jump, but until he is there he can't see if anything is on the windowsill which is why i wonder if keeping the back paws on the wall is their way of handling a situation if there is no room to land. Still nice videos and the way cats move will never cease to amaze me.

[Mollycat]

I'll have to watch for that, if anything most cats I have observed seem to land with back feet first when jumping up and I can't figure out how.

[Ruth B]

Of course it could just be Saturn being lazy and not jumping up properly. I've only really noticed it in the bathroom as he is inches away from me when he lands on the windowsill and it is a nice right angled edge he is jumping on.