Meet Ragdolls Perseus, Andromeda, and their daughter Domino! The cats live in Sherwood Park, Alberta so they are familiar with winter weather. Recently, the cats created a bit of a mystery for their family. How is it that three cats produced only 2 sets of prints?
The viral video of the trio revealed the solution to the puzzle:
Cats have a precise method of walking called ‘direct registering’.
Their hind paws fall inside the place of their forepaws — minimizing noise and visible tracks — while ensuring more stable footing..
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— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) February 13, 2023
Andromeda, the cat taking up the rear, is using what is known as “feline direct registering.” It’s the technical term for the way cats walk.
Cats walk efficiently so that their hind paws fall inside the place of their forepaws. In the wild this has many important advantages. It minimizes noise and visible tracks and ensures a more stable footing. So direct registering assists cats in hunting and in defence from predators.
And as Andromeda demonstrates, it helps domestic cats walk in deep snow efficiently. Andromeda doesn’t have to do as much work to walk in the snow and it saves her from getting her paws too wet. Clever cat!
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It’s not a onetime thing either as her family revealed that she used the same technique to walk in her human’s footsteps.
“Everyone loved how Andromda follows other cats pawprints, here she is using my footsteps as a path last winter,” they wrote on Instagram. They shared a video of the Ragdoll hopping and walking in the large prints in the snow.
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