Cats have nine lives. Are you serious?

Cats have charmed lives. So charmed that it is, perhaps, nine? The (mis)conception might stem from the fact that cats are too nimble-footed and agile to put their life under risk even during cataclysmic incidents.

You would have seen or heard about felines’ ability to land on their feet from quite an altitude nine out of ten times. Also, they are genetically blessed with a nervous mechanism called the righting reflex, which reorients the body to its upright position when tossed up or thrown down, mid-air. This is an attribute that comes handy when they climb trees – as their whiskered larger predecessors – or take a risky plunge.

Cats possess extremely good balance and flexible backbones compared to humans, thanks to more vertebrae. So, it’s a combination of biomechanics of their head, spine, knees and paws, and gravitational physics that subsequently comes into play. But then, it’s not that cats escape unscathed during every fall or adventurous jump despite their natural ability to pull it off.

In facts, felines of any colour or breed are nearly as prone to health complications as dogs. They should be vaccinated periodically to safeguard them from various ailments, including feline immunodeficiency virus.

Now, coming back to the ‘nine lives part’, where could it actually have originated from? Probably, this old English proverb offers us some clue: ‘A cat has nine lives. For three he plays, for three he strays, and for the last three he stays.’

Just that someone seems to have taken it way too seriously than intended.