Besides dressing cats in clothes, some owners also put shoes on their cats. There is a popular animation called Puss in Boots, about a clever cat who is invincible wearing boots and looks very cool and free. This originally seems unquestionable. For example, if the owner likes neatness, and some cats like to run around outside, to avoid dirtying the house, the owner might put shoes on the cat. Sometimes when the cat’s paws are injured, to heal, some owners also choose to put shoes on the cat. But, are cats suitable for wearing shoes? Some people say that cats won’t walk after wearing shoes.

　　If we think carefully, it seems we have never really seen a cat wearing shoes. There are countless shops selling clothes and shoes for dogs, but not a single one dedicated to cats. So are cats really unsuitable for wearing shoes? Hangzhou Zhangxu Animal Hospital conducted an experiment on cats wearing shoes.

　　The test subject was a one-year-old American Shorthair cat named “Galaxy,” who had never worn shoes before.

　　After putting shoes on “Galaxy” and placing it on the ground, it instantly “petrified,” almost completely losing the ability to walk. Its coordination also became very poor; when walking, it not only limped but also accidentally stepped on itself, looking very comical. Even after 5 minutes, “Galaxy” still couldn’t adapt.

　　Could it be that the shoes did not fit properly, causing the cat not to walk? The experimenters wrapped Galaxy’s paws with a towel and tried again. Although “Galaxy” became much more natural, it still wobbled and shuffled, constantly shaking its legs as if trying to get rid of the towel on its paws.

　　So why is this? Generally speaking, humans mainly use vision and hearing to define the external spatial environment. One can dance or sing with eyes closed, but walking would be unsteady and might cause falls. As for touch, humans seem to use it less, at most feeling “where the wind comes from.” From these videos, cats seem different. They seem to rely heavily on mechanical sensation to perceive the position in external spatial space. This is understandable because late at night when the moon is dark and the wind is high, without mechanical sense, cats would have trouble walking, let alone catching mice.

　　To analyze more specifically, what is “stuck” on the cat’s body is different from simply “attached.” Although cats generally act to move away from sticky areas, it’s not clear whether it is because it feels the fur is stuck (different hairs receive different vector forces in different directions and magnitudes), or because the skin receives a total pulling force (a single vector) which the cat tries to avoid. Considering that when adhesive is stuck on the cat’s back, it moves by crouching, and when stuck on the chest, it moves by stepping high, the direction of the tape’s movement relative to the skin is opposite in these two cases (pressed down on the back, pulled down on the chest). But the cat’s behavior in trying to get rid of the tape is the same. So we can conclude that cats want to escape from something invading their self-centered coordinate system.

　　Besides shoes, if something is stuck on other parts of the cat’s body, it also becomes uncomfortable all over.

　　The experimenters repeatedly stuck tape on themselves to reduce its stickiness before applying it to the cat. Sure enough, when tape was stuck on the abdomen, the cat walked on tiptoe with an arched back; when stuck on the sides, the cat turned its body sideways and walked in the opposite direction; when stuck on the top of the head, the cat dared not move forward anymore and kept retreating.

　　Cats’ behavior is very different from humans. For example, if a fly lands on the body, people basically think “there is a fly on me,” rather than “my body is stuck to the world.” The cat’s hypersensitive reactions to tape, shoes, and other foreign objects—especially after tape is stuck on the head or shoes on the feet—can be understood as the cat sensing something wrong in the external spatial environment, causing it to “withdraw” or “step across”.

　　Therefore, we can quickly conclude that cats’ perception of external spatial environment has certain limitations, preventing them from correctly identifying the source of external forces acting upon them. When they sense an outside force they cannot locate or escape from, they think the entire external space is problematic. Then they attempt to solve the issue by leaving that space, which explains their comical behavior.

　　Similarly, in veterinary hospitals, when cats wear Elizabethan collars, they often try to back out of them rather than scratch them off. So after putting shoes on cats, they feel that the external space is abnormal, and to keep away from foreign objects invading their self-centered coordinate system, they exhibit those strange behaviors.

　　Additionally, some researchers have found that the condition of the paws may also be a reason cats dislike wearing shoes. We know that cats’ paw pads are one of the organs maintaining balance. When the paw pads are covered, the cat’s balance system is affected. Normally, when cats walk, they need to extend their claws to grip the ground. Wearing shoes disables this function. Every hair on a cat’s body connects to a follicle and acts as a sensory organ. Even a slight disturbance awakens the cat’s alertness, so cats generally do not like wearing clothes, either.”