Julian's Second Update

[Pajarita]

My comment about them been born with the uncanny ability to balance had to do with anatomy - the 'equipment' if you will. If you don't have the 'equipment' you can practice all you want but you would never be able to be good at whatever it is. For example, you can teach a dog to balance but he will never, in a million years, be 1/10th as good as the worst cat at it. And, yes, they are born blind but that only means that they are altricial, they still have all the anatomical 'right equipment'. As to an older cat been better at it than a young one... I don't know about that. In my personal experience, it's actually the other way around. I have three young kittens and two 'teenagers' right now and they are aces at all kinds of physical feats! As a matter of fact, I think that young cats are at their very peak when it comes to physical abilities the same that young people have more agility, strength, etc than old people. It's as they get older that they start to 'settle down' and stop doing all kinds of crazy things with their bodies preferring to sleep on the window sill than to be climbing and jumping all over the place. And, although I can see where you want to go with it, I don't think that the comparison to baby birds is a valid one because baby birds that are never allowed to fly never finish developing the anatomy requirements for it -we are talking about neural paths that never formed, muscles that never grew and tendons that atrophied - meaning the 'equipment' was there but it was not allowed to develop and, because of that, it became useless. I would think that, if you wanted to make a comparison between a kitten and a baby bird, it would have to be a kitten that has its legs tied together and is never allowed to walk. And Kitty Pooh was not born blind or was a stray cat (blind stray cats don't last more than a few days - and that, if they are lucky because they can't survive out there without sight). But she did lose her sight when she was a kitten so, yes, she was used to it and even though she lived in a cage until we adopted her at 4 months of age, she adapted incredibly fast and well to her new environment - and even when we moved and lived in a new house, she still did great! So did her foster brother and cage mate, Coqui, also a severely handicapped 4 month old kitten (he had been born with a neurological defect that impaired his motor skills so he dragged his back legs and he shook all the time -especially his head) which we adopted at the same time. You should have seen him climbing using mostly only his front legs! We had to put them down when they were both 15 (she from kidney cancer and he from chronic pancreatitis) - a bit young to die for my taste but handicapped animals don't usually last as long as the ones that are healthy and whole.

[Wolf]

Well I really don't know why the cat in the picture was off balance, but if you simply look at the cats feet, it is east to see that it is. We may be able to come of with a hundred possible reasons for it and could easily still be wrong. At this point in time does it really matter? It does, in a way make for a unique discussion, but I am happy that everything turned out alright.

[Roonil Wazlib]

Usually he's pretty good with his balance, but in this instant he wasn't - and its undoubtedly clear he isn't comfortable with his stance. It could have been because of the grip, like JessiMuse has pointed out, or his being off-balance as wolf has stated. I think it's both. Because Julian was in the way he couldn't stretch out on the ledge length ways, and all four paws are 'competing' for the same bit of ledge, making his grip more difficult and his body bunch up, throwing off the balance - when cats balance on something, usually their two front feet are balanced one behind the other, and the two back legs are on another part of the object.

But even cats, whom are known for their excellent balance, have moments when they cant. Like a human who has done a dance move a 1000 times, and then for whatever reason, miss-calculates, and falls down. He was confidant he could balance as he had done on a ledge of that size many of times, its just this time Julian was in the way (and as hes not used to it) didn't calculate that bit of information into the equation. But for what ever reason, he didn't disturb Julian and turned around and got off.