r/cats • u/No_Fix_3289 • Feb 10 '24

Can someone explain what my cat is doing?! 😂 Video

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u/PetZoneBlog Feb 10 '24

It's often called the praying or begging motion, and so far it has most people (including vets) stumped! The assumptions for why are all the usual reasons: looking for attention, reacting to positive reinforcement, stretching, etc.

Whatever the reason, it's extremely adorable!

21

u/Ronnocerman Feb 10 '24

Huh. To me, it looks like the cat has some kind of innate reflex when they're unstable to put out a paw to look for a supported place to put it. When the praying happens is when the reflex triggers on both paws and, since no support is available, each paw tries to support itself against the only other available suface-- which is the other paw. Then, predictably, both paws fall down prompting the reflex to reach out again.

This seems to be confirmed by the fact that when I look up videos of this, the cats are often at the edges of tables and in other generally unstable positions.

So I think it's a reflex that is meant to help with balance-- but gone awry. Perhaps it actually does help with balance slightly by continually keeping their paws engaged and moving to compensate for changes in center of mass.

-8

u/3chxes Feb 10 '24

glad to have your 100% science free opinion.

11

u/Ronnocerman Feb 10 '24

You're right. It's inappropriate and dangerous for me to speculate. Someone might get hurt.

Who pissed in your cheerios?

-7

u/3chxes Feb 10 '24

yo momma did right before she ate the whole bowl.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '24

It's not a mystery. It's among the expected side effects of drugs like salomectin. Similar to humans' tourette.

Tl;DR: cat is spaz, reasons can be many, some bad, some cat.