How Cats Drink

With great precision and no mess. Perhaps you've already seen this; if not, you should. Be sure to watch the video.

The natural world is full of astonishing things. And the more closely we look at them the more astonishing they seem. I recall watching my little dog Andy one night as he considered whether or not to jump from the chair he was in to the chair I was in, or to jump down to the floor, then back up to my chair. It was not so close that he could simply do it, nor so far that it was obviously hopeless. Also the angle was a little awkward–the chairs were at right angles to each other, which would make the takeoff and landing a little more difficult.  He sat there and fretted for a bit, indecisive, and it occurred to me that an enormous work of analysis was going on in his brain: all sorts of computations involving distance, velocity, mass, and energy, which I'm sure would be difficult to replicate, and even more so to replicate in a machine that could do similar work in any situation in which a dog might find himself. And then there was the fact that he somehow knew that the jump was risky but not impossible. These things only fail to impress us most of the time because we're surrounded by them. (Andy finally decided to try the jump: he made it.)


5 responses to “How Cats Drink”

  1. Francesca

    It’s amazing how these things speed round the web (like cats’ tongues lapping). Someone sent that to me on FB about 2 or 3 days ago.

  2. Well, my cat might drink with great precision and no mess, but when the water gets down to a level that she is unhappy with, she turns the bowl over on purpose.
    AMDG

  3. Yes, Francesca, if I were quicker on the job I would have posted this earlier, too. I think it was Thursday or Friday when I first saw it, but I didn’t actually read the story or watch the video till Sunday.
    Janet, you know sometimes teachers have to discipline their students.

  4. Speaking of cats: I have a running battle with two of mine about them getting on the car. There’s a lot of sand where I live, and they roll in the sand, then get up on the hood of my car, walk around distributing sand, then rolling around so as to abrade the paint. Some years ago they pretty much ruined the paint on one car before I had realized what was happening. Now I frequently cover the hood, especially after a rain, and we have a sort of truce.
    So I parked at work this morning and saw a stray cat perched on the hood of the car next to me. They’re out to get me. I just had to laugh.

  5. It’s pouring rain now. Take that, evil cat!

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