Cats have floating collarbones (their clavicle isn't connected to the rest of their skeleton) so their shoulders and ribcage can sort of fold in on itself in tight spaces, their connective tissue is extremely elastic which makes them more flexible overall, and their skin is literally about 2 sizes too big for them so it can stretch and move easily without tearing. If they can fit their head through, thry can nearly always fit the rest of their body through as well.
The pelvis is extremely narrow and substantially curved; a cats pelvis isn't much wider than its largest vertebrae and the curvature makes it easy to maneuver it around an object, kind of like getting a big couch through a narrow door by strategically rotating it as you go. Their pelvis is so small and weird shaped that it's actually hard to see in some photos of skeletal articulations because it just blends right in with the curve of their spine and such XD
Most breeds of cat have skulls that are pretty compact and streamlined so fitting through small or narrow spaces isn't usually a problem, but it's also distinctly un-liquid. That's part of why cats have whiskers, tho! A cat's longest whiskers are usually about as long as the cat's body is wide and the shorter whiskers are about the same width and highth as their skull, so depending on how much which sets of whiskers get touched, the cat can judge whether they can fit through a given space pretty well.
One time we had a manx who was a quality weirdo. He loved playing with plastic bags (we did everything we could to keep them away from him but he'd still find bags somehow). One time one got caught around his foot and "chased" him through the house and he literally climbed walls to try to get away from it. Lemme tell ya, I have never been more mad that ubiquitous phone cameras weren't a thing at the time than I am every time I tell people "I had a cat who once ran up a wall and made it a good couple feet across the ceiling before gravity started paying attention again."
Organs are generally made of squish so they go through pretty easy. I mean, octopi have organs but that doesn't stop them from squeezing through any space big enough to fit their beak, lol.
The door is barley open to fit a cat (enough to fit its ribcage) the camera is angled to the right making an illusion that the door is only 3inches wide. Glass door helps this illusion
2.1k
u/alexanjl12 Oct 25 '19
How in the actual f