That was my thought, too. The meatloaf position is a position of relaxation, and most pets are not relaxed at the vet.
I caution anyone against taking the info about body language on the Friskies site without a grain of salt. Much like Desmond Morris writing in The Naked Ape, very little of what is claimed can be substantiated in a scientific manner. Most are only interpretations and opinions of observations, since we can’t give a cat a psychological test or ask what they are thinking. Morris didn’t bother much with verification, either, but at least he could have.
My mom has two cats, a brother and sister from the same litter. The smaller shorthair cat sits like this a lot. Her bigger, longhair maine coon brother usually does more of a sprawl on his side, though. The closest he ever gets to a catloaf is lying on his stomach with his feet sticking straight out behind him (looks bizarrely cute, lol). I actually found a google image of the not-quite-loafy position he assumes: http://i.imgur.com/DneL6.jpg. Imagine that cat but much, much furrier.
Anyway, I think it’s because the longhaired cat gets hotter with all that fur. So maybe it is a temperature regulation thing.
I think simster is onto something. My three cats do it, but when they are not truly comfortable – e.g., my bad-boy tabby will get on top of our ten-gallon aquarium (causing a mini- tsunami), then settle down in the so-called loaf position. (The heat from the aquarium light attracts him.) My two girl cats do the same when they are “testing” out new places to sleep/hide; they circle and plop down on a new “nest” (e.g., a bunch of brown paper bags) but in the “loaf” position as if they want to be ready to run if they have to. So my theory is that they are resting but want to be alert and ready to react to a predator or anything interesting the humans might do.
I will back up the idea that if cats are scared, they sometimes take the loaf position, because my cat does this whenever I move to a new place. She’ll usually hop in a bathroom sink or a bath tub and loaf it up, hoping that no one will bother her while she gets used to the idea of living in a new place. I also think I’ve seen her do it at the vet.
I don’t know why cats like to sit/lie like that. I can’t remember having a cat that slept like that, most of them seemed to flop on their side…
I do know that horses can lie down in a similar position - only their legs aren’t underneath them (I don’t have a digital pic of same) so that they can get up onto their feet quickly should a sweet wrapper or other horse devouring monster attack while they are having a nap.
Perhaps the loaf position is a way for a cat to chillax, but be in a position to leap on any prey, such as your feet, or a passing baby…?
All of our cats have been catloafers to various degrees - some a lot; some occasionally.
But one cat we have now, Annie, a cute little Tuxedo cat, assumes the catloaf position, wraps her tail around to her front, and then curls her face down into her tail. This is referred to as “Annie-with-her-nose-down” (DAD!! it’s Annie-with-her-nose-down!!) or “The Full Lozenge.” Very squee. Next to impossible to get pics of because the minute we giggle (it happens) or make noises getting the camera ready, she snaps up and glares at us.
My personal theory for the ‘I have neither legs nor tail’ pose is simply that at some point in the past the cat has had one or more extremeties stepped on and doesn’t want to risk repeating the experience.
Ah…now I have a term for this when my cat Rumpleteazer does it. She only does it when she’s laying on the arm of the couch, though. I’ve seen her do the catloaf just about everywhere she prefers to nap and a lot of times, esp in the winter when it’s cooler, I’ll find her in a sunny spot all stretched out. I call it “doing the raw prawn”.
For those of you wondering about what to call various positions and poses your cats use, I refer y’all to The Many Standard Linney Formations by Lucy Knisley.
My favorite, and indeed the one that seems to elicit the most immediate and favorable response from nearly everyone who views it, is of course The Hug ‘n’ Bite
One of my cats uses the Meatloaf Position quite often. When he sleeps, he bows his head forward until he is face-planted on the couch, still in the Meatloaf.
