r/interestingasfuck • u/casualphilosopher1 • Jan 29 '23
The "kitty stretch", done by different species of cat
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u/rondonjon Jan 29 '23
All the canids do this as well.
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u/ResplendentShade Jan 30 '23
So do some rodents. My ex-roomate's pet mice would do this. Maybe it's just more broadly a 4-legged mammal thing.
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u/rondonjon Jan 30 '23
Indeed. It seems a natural way of stretching for those four leggers. It’s even good for us humans, downward dog ftw. Hell, there even might be some birds that do it.
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u/TheCosmicFailure Jan 29 '23
I can confirm. My dog Roman does that every morning.
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u/under_the_gun23 Jan 30 '23
My bulldog does it constantly. She even ripped her stitches from getting fixed because she just can't help herself.
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u/mrk2 Jan 30 '23
Greyhounds checking-in too!
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u/Any-Mouse-1992 Jan 30 '23
I see our GSD do this as well
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u/Miss_Flying_Platypus Jan 30 '23
My beagles do it too. Honestly, I'd do it too if I could. It looks satisfying.
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u/CasaraKatVosk Jan 29 '23
What are canids?
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u/Ninjotoro Jan 29 '23
A member of the Canidae: the dog family. Wolves, foxes, coyotes, dogs, etc etc.
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u/EveryXtakeYouCanMake Jan 29 '23
That looks so relieving. I'm gonna try it right now...
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u/moist--robot Jan 29 '23
This is not a ‘kitty stretch’. Most mammals do it. It’s called ‘pandiculation’ and it’s an active form of stretching ‘from the inside out’ (vs the passive stretching of say, yoga, which is ‘outside in’) that prepares the body for motion after a period of inactivity, which is why it’s most common upon waking.
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u/Suspicious-Basil1055 Jan 29 '23
I think animals just do that in general. My dog does this same stretch.
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u/PM_ME_FUNFAX Jan 29 '23
Curious, do great apes stretch the same way that humans do? Seems like how am animal stretches would mirror body type
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u/Pale-Office-133 Jan 29 '23
I think if every big cat had the opportunity to experience how humans can pat and scratch, there would be no wild big cats. Only domesticated ones, big and small.
Dogs probably wouldn't like it very much tbh.
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u/youngmindoldbody Jan 29 '23
dogs do this, so do we, physically waking up the bodies nervous system I believe.
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u/thebeast5268 Jan 30 '23
Is there a human version of this, that stretches almost all your muscles at once, the way it does in four legged animals?
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u/peyones970 Jan 29 '23
This is just how 4 legged animals stretch? My dog does this all the time and is not, to the best of my knowledge, a cat
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u/AtheistComic Jan 29 '23
Why did the cat stretch awkwardly? Because it was a little bit feline stiff!
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u/That1Cat87 Jan 30 '23
Oooooooooo big stretch
Oooooooooo big stretch
Oooooooooo big stretch
Oooooooooo big stretch
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u/GotMeSomeInternet Jan 30 '23
Haha that's fucking awesome. Literally as I looked at this my cat was doing this at the same time. Perfect timing.
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u/lickingthelips Jan 30 '23
My physiotherapist said that I should stretch my back like this
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u/BeautifulHindsight Jan 30 '23
Yet in yoga, it's called downward facing dog. This has befuddled me since childhood.
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u/SkyO2 Jan 30 '23
We have a mini lion in our house and everyone is just okay with that
I mean I have 2 but still weird
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u/rddtgoodrddtrsbad Jan 30 '23
What exactly are they stretching? Front calves? Back? What tenses up in a cat that makes them want to stretch this way?
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u/chronicdemonic Feb 04 '23
Why does my dog do this? And then she'll just freeze with her butt in the air lol
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