I have two cats. One of them is a 7-lb. female tuxedo cat, the other is a 14-pound spotted tabby male. Tabby walks like every other animal I’ve ever seen. Left front leg goes forward, right front leg back, right back leg forward, left back leg back, so that the front & back paws of each leg are in opposition and almost meet, then stretch out.
Tuxedo cat walks different. Left front leg goes forward, left rear leg goes forward. Right front goes forward, right back goes forward. The only other animal I’ve seen do this was a gaited horse, and it had to be taught (I think).
Her other gaits are the same as any cat’s, running, scampering, trotting in a businesslike way around the house, pouncing. But at a walk, she looks very different. It gives her an odd sway.
Why does she do that? Has anyone else ever seen a cat walk that way?
Not that I recall particularly in a cat, but it wouldn’t surprise me. I’ve seen dogs do it lots of times. For the dogs I think it’s good for maintaining a particular speed though, not their usual mode of walking. As I’m typing I getting a memory of one cat doing that in our backyard, and it seems like the dogs, a pace somewhere between a fast walk and a gallop. So if your cat does that most of the time, it does seem odd to me. But I haven’t spent that much time observing how animals walk either.
Right now Blackjack (the best dog ever) tends to move his back legs together any time he exceeds a walking speed. That’s because he’s had injuries to both knees and he’s more in hopping than running mode with his back legs. Maybe your cat had some sort of injury that makes him use an unusual gait. Or maybe lots of cats do that, and neither one of us ever noticed.
ETA: Rereading your OP, I see you mention a trot, which probably covers the faster pace. So for just slow walking speed, it seems very unusual to me, given the previous caveats.
Here’s the wiki articleon gait. The gait you are discussing would be a symetrical gait with a 100% phase, while the ‘normal’ gait would have a 50% phase. Nothing there mentions a cat gait.
This wiki articleon cats said something that surprised me though:
So they say that the 100% phase walk is normal for cats. Unless I’ve got your OP reversed in meaning, Tuxedo walks like a normal cat, and Tabby walks strange. And when I looked at cats walking, I failed to observe.
I have met horses that naturally walk and pace like that. I have also met dogs that do that, too. In humans, the " normal" pattern results in a reciprocating gait, with the arm moving in sync with the opposite leg. This makes it easy to use cane properly. I have only once found a human with a natural gait like tuxedo cat, and it was impossible to train him out of it. I am not sure this can be trained.
No, it is natural for some horses (like some people are naturally left-handed).
Horses can be trained to do this (or even trained NOT to do it, though that’s hard). But a basic tendency is inborn genetic, and tends to run in certain bloodlines.
Okay, Tuxedo is the normal one, and Tabby is abnormal?
I should add, walking is only one among many, many gaits. There is the scamper. There is the low prowl. There is the tall-grass prance (also performed in snow). When I was watching them, I was astounded at their many means of locomotion.
I am now observing other peoples’ cats.
At any rate, only one of my cats is weird, at least as far as walking goes. Tabby does have a lot of doglike qualities. For instance, he will come when called, and he likes to splash in water, although he doesn’t jump in.
