Toe in the Water

Things to Learn from Cats - Part Three

Things to Learn from Cats - Part Three

I freely admit that when I started this series, I had only two points to make. Fortunately or otherwise, I have come up with a third.

Yesterday I was thinking about cats and I realised that they may be the only animals apart from us that box. Not the carton type of box but the punching with a fist kind. I’ve heard that kangaroos can do the same but I think that may have more to do with the their ability to kick extremely hard. Cats punch in the same way we do when we step into the ring under the Marquis of Queensbury rules.

You may be thinking that, when cats bash each other about the ears, they’re trying to injure each other with their claws. But they’re not. I’ve been punched in the face by a cat and the claws are always retracted for this. They punch for the same reason we do - in play. Google funny cat videos on YouTube and you’ll see just how often they thump each other in this way.

There are always rules of engagement when animals of the same type fight each other. Some of them are equipped with lethal weapons of attack or defence and survival of the species decrees that there should be limitations put upon disputes between creatures of the same persuasion. And so cats will punch each other in play or contest, but never with claws extended.

What do we learn from this? Just that we share with them the strange tendency to hit each other with a fist. It’s a thing so rare that it may even be possible that the sport of boxing arose from someone watching a couple of cats thumping the daylights out of each other.


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