All cat owners know the passing, concerning thoughts regarding what our cat's backside touches around our home. When I see my cat sit on my keyboard, for example, or on the table from which I eat food, it leaves me a little uneasy for a moment.
Thankfully, one student decided to finally get some answers by running an experiment to see just what surfaces a cat's butt really touches.
A long-standing question finally got some answers thanks to his work, which he compiled on a classic science fair tri-fold board.
His findings were pretty sound, but let's look at his method first.
In order to see the physical presence of either cat's butt on a surface, they were marked with non-toxic lipstick. They were then given a series of commands including sit, wait, lay down, and jump, on top of a piece of paper. If their butt touched the surface, a mark from the lipstick would be seen on said paper.
Good news for those with long and medium-haired cats, their buttholes made no contact with any surface in any state. For short-haired cat owners like myself, their butts made no contact on hard surfaces, but there were slight marks left when on softer surfaces like bedding.
Outside of bedding, other examples listed were laundry and some types of carpet. Others that I can think of as I look at my own short-haired cat are towels, pillows, and cushions.
She was the perfect person to have as an assistant too, considering this detail she added in the post, "Funny thing is I have a Ph.D. in animal behavior, with a concentration in feline behavior [...], I feel like for the first time in 15 years I actually put my degree to use, even though I was only supervising his science project!"
Kerry made sure to let everyone know, "[They] were compensated with lots of praise, pets, and their favorite treats, and the lipstick was removed with a baby wipe once we collected our data in just under 10 minutes."
And for anyone wondering, yes, he certainly got an A+ on his project; Kerry made sure of it. In fact, he "most definitely got an A++++++."
Kerry also wanted to make sure everyone knew that no cats were harmed in the making of this project.
