All healthy, average weight cats are good jumpers (and by human standards, amazing jumpers) but some are better than others. Cats do vary in their skills just as they do in their characters.
Here are two extremes:
Admittedly the bad jumper is overweight and he might be middle-aged or older. The slender super-jumper is very impressive indeed. You can see how he hauls himself up the last couple of feet.
The jumping ability comes from fast twitch muscles, long levers (long bones in the legs providing excellent leverage) and excellent orientation skills. You’ll see a cat sway his head from side to side at the target or landing zone. He does this to get a good fix on the position by using his binocular vision.
Dwarf cats such as the Munchkin have short legs. They can still jump well but less well than a normal cat because they have less leverage.
Good jumping skills probably also depends on the confidence of the cat. Outgoing confident cats might be better jumpers than timid cats.
Probably the world’s best cat jumper is the cougar – powerful hind quarters and long limbs.
Good on you Caroline, I love your passion and determination to help stop declawing xx
You bet I will. Thanks for adding this additional info! <3
Something else to show your vet Caroline, I received this today from Jennifer Conrad the Paw Project vet:
Dr. Nicholas Dodman, Professor of Behavioral Pharmacology and Director of the Behavior Clinic at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine and internationally known specialist in domestic animal behavioral research, explains declawing:
“The inhumanity of the procedure is clearly demonstrated by the nature of cats’ recovery from anesthesia following the surgery. Unlike routine recoveries, including recovery from neutering surgeries, which are fairly peaceful, declawing surgery results in cats bouncing off the walls of the recovery cage because of excruciating pain. Cats that are more stoic huddle in the corner of the recovery cage, immobilized in a state of helplessness, presumably by overwhelming pain. Declawing fits the dictionary definition of mutilation to a tee. Words such as deform, disfigure, disjoint, and dismember all apply to this surgery. Partial digital amputation is so horrible that it has been employed for torture of prisoners of war, and in veterinary medicine, the clinical procedure serves as model of severe pain for testing the efficacy of analgesic drugs. Even though analgesic drugs can be used postoperatively, they rarely are, and their effects are incomplete and transient anyway, so sooner or later the pain will emerge.”