Skin is a highly effective tool, able to detect very slight differences in pressure and temperature. Tactile receptors are not distributed evenly over all parts of the body. The most innervated regions are the face and extremities (paws and paw pads) and the anal and genital regions. The cat has vibrissae (whiskers) on its muzzle that are a sort of large, extensively innervated hair with a highly developed tactile role.In the event of overstimulation, the perceived sensation turns into pain. In fact, physiologists have demonstrated the existence of receptors that become active only when the stimulation is great enough to injure the skin. This means that pain may, in some ways, be considered as a separate sense. Tactile and thermal sensitivity serve to alert and protect the animal when a stimulus becomes dangerous, and specific sensitivity prevents an already altered region from being re-exposed.
Cats are well-known for their remarkable sense of balance that enables them to walk along very narrow walls or fences and easily right themselves during a fall so as to land on all fours. This ability is based on the subtle, unconscious, and virtually constant detection of the head's position in space and of muscle and tendon tension. Each movement is detected three-dimensionally by highly sensitive receptors in the inner ear. In the same manner, muscle receptors, or spindles, and tendon receptors constantly compare the tension in each muscle group. All this information is thoroughly analyzed by various structures in the brain (particularly the frontal region) and cerebellum, leading reflexively to the immediate correction of movement to maintain balance during motion. This system is disconnected very rarely, only during phases of deep sleep.
Cats are often described using well-established images that distinguish them from other species: they are depicted as silent but noisy during mating, mysterious, independent, territorial, adept at hunting, nocturnal and able to see in the dark, agile, meticulous about grooming, sleeping often, curled up and purring at the corner of the hearth, etc. These attributes are based on the behavioral characteristics of felines, as well as their remarkable physiological adaptations as fearsome predators. All these special features are simply adaptations for survival in a wide range of environments, where felines effectively track and hunt prey and spend the rest of their time recovering and rebuilding their energy reserves.
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