Why cats can squeeze through the tightest of cracks

Special anatomy
This is why cats can slip through very narrow gaps

A narrow fence or a cracked door is no obstacle for a cat. The animals can make it through even the smallest loopholes – because of their special body structure.

When I was a child, there was the same spectacle almost every night: one after the other, our two tomcats squeezed through the tilted skylight and got into the house. We didn’t have a cat flap, and at some point the two of them must have discovered that you could also get into the apartment this way. Even if the window was only slightly open.

Who hasn’t already observed this: Cats seem to squeeze through narrow gaps, passageways and fences effortlessly. They are the first ones in the apartment when you come home and have just turned the key. Precisely because they can snake their way through the barely opened door. This looks very fluid and elegant. You might think that the cat would become very long and narrow.

A cat is very mobile because of its special body structure

But why is that so? As children we learned the rule of thumb: cats can fit through anything that is no narrower than their whiskers. Some current articles on the subject say a little more precisely: If the gap is as wide as the head, the kitty can squeeze through. Very overweight animals probably do not fully rely on this wisdom.

The reason for this extreme mobility lies in the anatomical peculiarities of cats and in the structure of their skeleton, which makes the animals very flexible and stretchy. You lack a wide collarbone. In their case, this bone is only present in rudiments; the shoulders are only loosely connected to the rest of the skeleton by ligaments. The animals’ thorax is narrow.

Cats also have around 40 more bones than humans, which makes them very mobile overall. In our case there are around 206. The larger number of vertebrae alone makes the skeleton of these popular pets very flexible. Overall, cat bones are light and stable.

Cats can actually make themselves very “slim” and, because of their naturally slim and flexible body structure, can get through many obstacles that, to human judgment, appear dangerously narrow.

It’s the cat itself – why wait for someone to open the door?

The peculiarity of their anatomy gave our two cats a few extra cozy hours on their blanket night after night. Because without squeezing through the tilted window, they would have had to wait until someone opened the front door for them in the morning.

Sources: “Petbook.de“, Petdoctors.at, Purina.de, Fressnapf.de,

You can see in the photo series: Cats are not really prone to emotional outbursts. But even the coolest kitty reveals herself through her body language and shows clearly when she likes someone. You should pay attention to these four gestures.