# How fast can a cat whomp something, and are they lefties or righties? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 17, 2013, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-a-cat-whomp-something-and-are-they-lefties-or-righties/650636 "2013-02-17T23:22:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-a-cat-whomp-something-and-are-they-lefties-or-righties/650636/1 "2013-02-17T23:22:12Z")
See subjects. Beautiful demonstrations [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsHobFeIhQc&feature=youtube_gdata_player) (cat vs. DVD tray). ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-a-cat-whomp-something-and-are-they-lefties-or-righties/650636/2 "2013-02-17T23:26:27Z")
This one seems to be right-handed. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/CSK1D3bZhRs/hqdefault.jpg "Cat vs Printer - The Translation") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSK1D3bZhRs) Note: Cat’s language is NSFW. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-a-cat-whomp-something-and-are-they-lefties-or-righties/650636/3 "2013-02-17T23:27:04Z")
Tag-on comment for consideration: I was thinking about this, but figured it couldn’t exist: [drum-roll fast repeated cat kicking.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoNiMwAeizA&feature=youtube_gdata_player) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-a-cat-whomp-something-and-are-they-lefties-or-righties/650636/4 "2013-02-17T23:35:21Z")
[Cecil on the topic](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/990/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-left-handed-cat) ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-a-cat-whomp-something-and-are-they-lefties-or-righties/650636/5 "2013-02-17T23:42:36Z")
A study a few years ago (more recent than the one Cecil cites) found that female cats tend to be righties and male cats tend to be lefties. > **[Is your cat left or right pawed?](https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17510-is-your-cat-left-or-right-pawed/)** > > Like humans, cats tend to prefer one paw over the other when tackling tricky tasks, find researchers ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-a-cat-whomp-something-and-are-they-lefties-or-righties/650636/6 "2013-02-17T23:56:56Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Tag-on comment for consideration: I was thinking about this, but figured it couldn’t exist: [drum-roll fast repeated cat kicking.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoNiMwAeizA&feature=youtube_gdata_player) I’ve known several cats who would kick like that when that heel was very gently touched. Used to do it to one beloved favorite every once in a while for giggles. With that in mind, I think the video’s real, and the cat learned the noisemaking-doorbanger trick with human guidance. ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-a-cat-whomp-something-and-are-they-lefties-or-righties/650636/7 "2013-02-18T00:34:29Z")
[I couldn’t find a really good article on the subject](http://genesdev.cshlp.org/content/12/6/763.full), but I think there is a deep suspicion that handedness is related in someway to molecular chirality. For example, IIRC, most amino acids used in human biochemistry are the levo-rotary versions rather than the dextro-rotary. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-a-cat-whomp-something-and-are-they-lefties-or-righties/650636/8 "2013-02-18T01:36:19Z")
> [@deltasigma](#): > > [I couldn’t find a really good article on the subject](http://genesdev.cshlp.org/content/12/6/763.full), but I think there is a deep suspicion that handedness is related in someway to molecular chirality. For example, IIRC, most amino acids used in human biochemistry are the levo-rotary versions rather than the dextro-rotary. Frankly it sounds highly unlikely that these facts about molecular chirality have anything to do with which hand is dominant. I can’t imagine a mechanism whereby one would influence the other. Yes, the amino acids in proteins are all in the L form (except glycine, which isn’t chiral), and biologically occurring sugars are, I believe, all in the D form, but that is the case not only for for both left-handed and right-handed people, but for all living things, including plants, single celled organisms, and animals that do not even have bilateral symmetry, such as jellyfish and starfish. I have never heard of a right (or left) handed jellyfish (or oak tree, or amoeba, or bacterium). [Note also that L and D chirality is only indirectly related to the actual effect of the molecule on polarized light.] On the other hand, it is almost certainly relevant that, in humans, the left hemisphere of the brain, that controls the right side side of the body, is also where most of of our language function is located. This would not apply to cats, though. I would have expected them to be ambidextrous. ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-a-cat-whomp-something-and-are-they-lefties-or-righties/650636/9 "2013-02-18T01:52:44Z")
And yet, in people who’s organs are arrange on opposite sides of their bodies from what is normal, they show the same propensity to left handedness. From the article I linked to: > [@](#): > > Amazingly, patients with _situs inversus_ exhibit the same low incidence of left-handedness as is found in the general population ([Cockayne 1938](http://genesdev.cshlp.org/content/12/6/763.full#ref-14);[Torgersen 1950](http://genesdev.cshlp.org/content/12/6/763.full#ref-59)). One would think that having one’s insides completely rearranged might be reflected in handedness, but it’s not, indicating that the preference probably is expressed much earlier in the developmental process when molecular influences might dominate. Also from that article > [@](#): > > There is, however, an interesting set of observations that suggest that, even in mammals, chirality is determined as early as the first few cell divisions, and certainly before the streak appears. Nonconjoined monozygotic twins, while not exhibiting the kinds of visceral laterality defects that occur in conjoined twins, do manifest many subtler kinds of mirror-image asymmetry. Pairs of such twins have been noted to present mirror asymmetries in hand preference, hair whorl direction, tooth patterns, unilateral eye and ear defects, and even tumor locations and undescended testicles ([Newman et al. 1937](http://genesdev.cshlp.org/content/12/6/763.full#ref-50); [Gedda et al. 1981](http://genesdev.cshlp.org/content/12/6/763.full#ref-23); [Yager 1984](http://genesdev.cshlp.org/content/12/6/763.full#ref-67); [Carton and Rees 1987](http://genesdev.cshlp.org/content/12/6/763.full#ref-11); [Beere et al. 1990](http://genesdev.cshlp.org/content/12/6/763.full#ref-4); [Townsend and Richards 1990](http://genesdev.cshlp.org/content/12/6/763.full#ref-60); [Morison et al. 1994](http://genesdev.cshlp.org/content/12/6/763.full#ref-47); [Cidis et al. 1997](http://genesdev.cshlp.org/content/12/6/763.full#ref-13)). So yes, it is still well within the realm of speculation, I give you that, but it is far from fanciful speculation. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-a-cat-whomp-something-and-are-they-lefties-or-righties/650636/10 "2013-02-18T01:52:59Z")
Anecdote: I have had both right and left pawed cats, and of the three I can remember which paw they preferred, it was one left and two right. They were all males. My current female seems to have no preference, and I don’t remember what any of the past females were, but I do recall noticing that many of both sexes had some preference. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-a-cat-whomp-something-and-are-they-lefties-or-righties/650636/11 "2013-02-18T02:40:14Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > This one seems to be right-handed. > [www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSK1D3bZhRs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSK1D3bZhRs) > > Note: Cat’s language is NSFW. Why does it appear to be right handed? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-a-cat-whomp-something-and-are-they-lefties-or-righties/650636/12 "2013-02-18T03:03:18Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Why does it appear to be right handed? Sorry, I may have misremembered… when it’s saying “Take… the fucking… paper…” it whomps the printer tray a few times, and I remember it being right-handed. Was it a lefty instead? ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-a-cat-whomp-something-and-are-they-lefties-or-righties/650636/13 "2013-02-18T04:20:23Z")
It’s ambidextrous (and definitely amusing). ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-a-cat-whomp-something-and-are-they-lefties-or-righties/650636/14 "2013-02-18T04:27:38Z")
[Defensive reflex](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFCiyBuvfmk) ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-a-cat-whomp-something-and-are-they-lefties-or-righties/650636/15 "2013-02-19T03:19:06Z")
[Rapid ankle extension during paw shakes: selective recruitment of fast ankle extensors](http://jn.physiology.org/content/43/3/612.short) J. L. Smith, B. Betts, V. R. Edgerton, and R. F. Zernicke Abstract 1. Electromyographic (EMG) signals from slow (soleus) and fast (lateral gastrocnemius) ankle extensors of six cats were recorded during rapid and alternate flexion-extension of the hindlimb elicited by placing the paw in water or by sticking tape to the plantar pads. High-speed 16-mm film, taken at 100 or 200 frames/s, was analyzed to determine the knee and ankle joint kinematics. 2. \*\*During 77 typical records, which averaged eight paw shakes each, a single extension-flexion cycle measured by the paw shake interval (PSI) of the electromyogram record, averaged 88 ms and ranged from 55 to 110 ms. \*\*LG EMG bursts of 10 ms in duration were synchronized with the peak displacement of ankle flexion. The SOL was inactive throughout these typical records. 3. During four atypical records from one cat, the average OSI was 141 ms, and both lateral gastrocnemius (LG and soleus (SOL) were active simultaneously. At a range of 6–8 cycles/s, these slower shakes are comparable to rhythmic actions of scratching )12) and locomotion (27); cyclic movements that typically include the recruitment of soleus. 4. It is suggested that paw shaking is an automatic movement triggered primarily by large, low-threshold afferents innervating the central plantar pads, which may selectively recruit the fast extensors while inhibiting the slow extensor. This is the only movement of the hindlimb recorded to date in our laboratory in which the tlg was active without the SOL. This unique dissociation of recruitment of slow and fast ankle extensors may be dictated by the time constraints imposed by the rapid cyclic movements of paw shaking. Copyright © 1980 the American Physiological Society Bold added. So there’s that. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-a-cat-whomp-something-and-are-they-lefties-or-righties/650636/16 "2013-02-19T03:30:06Z")
If cat species are similar, some info might be gleaned from [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=661555). However, so far as I’m concerned, tl;dr. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-can-a-cat-whomp-something-and-are-they-lefties-or-righties/650636/17 "2013-02-21T02:48:31Z")
[Answer here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL3cKY1ptlw)