Last week I took my cat to the vet because I found a lump on her stomach that didn’t go away. I paid €120 on the consultation for them to tell me it was her bellybutton.
Gigi in Amersterdam, Holland
It’s a cute story. And this young woman should be praised for checking that her cat, Ponyo, was well. She lives in Amsterdam with her four-year-old cat and discovered a concerning lump on Ponyo’s stomach.
She said that she didn’t realise cats said bellybuttons. They do because they’re mammal. They have umbilical cords just like humans. When they are born the mother severs the umbilical cord. This leaves a bellybutton.
The interesting part of this story though is that Gigi saw a lump and a domestic cat’s bellybutton is normally very small. It isn’t a lump in the normal sense of the word in this context. This points to the possibility that it might have been an umbilical hernia but I simply don’t know and that’s a wild guess.
You might have difficulty seeing your cat’s bellybutton because there’s lots of fur and because it’s usually very small. Which brings to mind the story I just mentioned above because she noticed the bellybutton quite easily which indicates to me that it was more prominent than normal which in turn leads me to believe that it might have been a small umbilical hernia but I’ll leave it at that.
There is no picture of Ponyo’s bellybutton! Never mind. Just visialize a small lump on the belly and perhaps you might rummage around your cat’s belly – if they allow it – to find that mysterious bellybutton.
Here is a cat bellybuttton. They vary in appearance.
My thanks to Newsweek for the story and Gigi on TikTok.
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