Thursday, February 10, 2011

Did you know...


(and if you get the cats.about.com newsletter, then you do)

I've always referred to the act of a cat raising it's butt when you pat it as "elevator butt'  But according to http://cats.about.com/ it is actually called Lordosis.

(which my spell check does NOT like)

Definition: Noun. Refers to the posture of female cats in estrus: head down, forelegs bent, rear quarters raised to expose the perineum, with the tail raised and held to the side of the body (to accomodate entry by a willing male). Her rear legs will tread rhythmically, as if walking in place. Lordosis will often be accompanied by loud "calling." 
 
But wait.  Cats who have elevator butt are not always in heat.  So does that mean that lordosis is strictly for the "in heat" pose.  if so, that kinda makes sense, since it starts off with lord, and cats in heat are looking for a man.. 
(yes, I'm being silly)

Well now this is interesting, google tells me that lordosis is a fancy way of saying "swayback" in humans.

Googling (spell check hates that too) feline lordosis ranges from the posture cats take in heat to problems with the spine.

Well, I'm just going to stick to "elevator butt" since people know exactly what I mean when I say that, and I'm sure I'd just look pompous if I tried to call it lordosis.

3 comments:

  1. Sometimes in my "elevator butt" pose, I keep my head up, so I guess that means that technically it is not the official Lordosis pose?

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  2. We got that email this morning too and it made mom laugh. Elevator butt is about the right name for it...and everyone here does it looking for scritches.

    ReplyDelete
  3. yes, and head butting is really called bunting...

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