Missed it by THAT much.
March 10, 2014 1:59 PM   Subscribe

Many animals, cats in particular, are graceful creatures capable of leaping high and far with remarkable precision. But sometimes they miss. (SLAnimalGIFsTumblr)
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish (73 comments total) 54 users marked this as a favorite
 
This one is my favorite. The sidelong glance at the camera before it tumbles into the void gets me every time.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 2:00 PM on March 10, 2014 [4 favorites]


My cat Opie, bless his little head, can never quite make it to the other side. Thanks for the laugh!
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 2:01 PM on March 10, 2014


I have never added a Tumblr to my RSS so fast. Thank you.
posted by Rock Steady at 2:02 PM on March 10, 2014


Tumblr indeed.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:04 PM on March 10, 2014 [15 favorites]


I always wish this type of gif would come with a "don't worry, the critter's okay!" epilogue, because I worry about some of those falls and bonks being dangerous. Then I laugh. Then I feel bad. Then I laugh some more.

The raccoon one might be the best. The catlike butt wiggling! The outstretched limbs!
posted by Metroid Baby at 2:05 PM on March 10, 2014 [14 favorites]


My cat Zach once did pretty much this, only he was jumping into the window trying to get a pigeon outside on the windowsill. He tumbled to the ground, and shook himself, looked up at me with a total "I meant to do that" look, and stalked into the bathroom where he hid behind the tub for an hour.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:08 PM on March 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


I think that raccoon's thought process must be something like, "Ready...focus...FLYING SQUIRREL! Agggh!"
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 2:10 PM on March 10, 2014 [4 favorites]


Wow, those are some hilariously clumsy cats, so much for feline grace and hunter skills.
posted by Iosephus at 2:10 PM on March 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


Aww, I feel bad for them.

...I mean, I normally subscribe to the Mel Brooks School of What Constitutes Comedy, but I feel bad for them. Poor beasties. They need hugs.
posted by aramaic at 2:11 PM on March 10, 2014


Ferrets are notorious for stealing beer. At least that ferret didn't get any illicit hootch. They're not all fun drunks...
posted by Mad_Carew at 2:12 PM on March 10, 2014


I laughed at some and winced at others. I'm willing to believe that the smaller mammals came out fine in most of them, but I have a hard time believing that a horse can fall on its back from that height and just shrug it off. Horses are heavy. Still added, though, because most of them are hilarious.
posted by YAMWAK at 2:13 PM on March 10, 2014 [3 favorites]


Metroid Baby: I always wish this type of gif would come with a "don't worry, the critter's okay!" epilogue, because I worry about some of those falls and bonks being dangerous.

Yeah, there's a dog jumping out of a moving car (?) there that really makes me cringe. I always assume the animal's people wouldn't go to the trouble to post a video where their critter really gets hurt, but, yeesh.
posted by Rock Steady at 2:13 PM on March 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


That ferret was funny. It must be tough sometimes to be built like a Slinky.
posted by ubiquity at 2:14 PM on March 10, 2014 [9 favorites]


I worried about the horse falling over too, but later on there's this one going completely haunches-over-teakettle and standing up like nothing happened, so I choose to believe they can all do that.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 2:14 PM on March 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


The first post for Feb 15, 2013 demonstrates conclusively that cats cannot pass the mirror test, and why that's bad.
posted by ubiquity at 2:18 PM on March 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


"Wow, those are some hilariously clumsy cats, so much for feline grace and hunter skills."

I'd say about half of the catfail gifs (and no small number of the others) are the result of unexpectedly slick surfaces totally sucking as launching platforms.

One of my favorites is this one, if for no other reason than that I think the cat totally accomplished his aim, and in unique style.

Also, I had no idea horses could do that. Mind, I'm greatly relieved that they can do that, as the alternative I expected was terrible injury. I suppose that if horses naturally do occasionally jump over things, they'd have to have some skill at avoiding injury when their jumps go badly awry.

Still, the instant upside-down of such large animals that really should never be upside-down is kind of amazing to me.

This is my other favorite, because it might as well be a cartoon.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 2:18 PM on March 10, 2014 [4 favorites]


That tumblr is full of lies. The one from Feb 11 clearly shows the short-haired cat being very successful at pushing. And the one from May 22 shows the cat landing exactly where she expected to land, just on a rather less solid surface than she expected.
posted by jeather at 2:18 PM on March 10, 2014


...I mean, I normally subscribe to the Mel Brooks School of What Constitutes Comedy, but I feel bad for them. Poor beasties.

Yeah, there's a video of these also going around and I wasn't able to watch it all the way through. I wish there was some kind of "no animals were harmed..." disclaimer.
posted by fuse theorem at 2:20 PM on March 10, 2014


I see nothing to suggest that this cat did not intend to faceplant into a pile of soft.
posted by invitapriore at 2:20 PM on March 10, 2014 [17 favorites]


I've seen that golden retriever one jumping out of a car windows for the past 300 years, and I've love to know the back-story behind it.

I'm (naively) hoping the dog just shook it off.
posted by sektah at 2:21 PM on March 10, 2014


"Also, the first post for Feb 15, 2013 demonstrates conclusively that cats cannot pass the mirror test, and why that's bad."

Well, the test is recognizing their image as themselves, not that they do or don't understand that it's a reflection.

My cat very eerily casually watches me in the mirror. Not like a human would watch someone/something in a mirror, but as an entirely interchangeable substitute for looking at me directly. It took me a long while to realize she did this. It's unnerving.

I am pretty sure that she doesn't know that's her own image in the mirror, but I also am quite sure that she disregards it.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 2:23 PM on March 10, 2014


sektah: I'm (naively) hoping the dog just shook it off.

I saw a few dogs that had jumped out of moving vehicles in my time in the veterinary ER, and they generally did not just shake it off. I think they had all jumped onto pavement from vehicles going much faster than the one in this clip, so maybe.
posted by Rock Steady at 2:28 PM on March 10, 2014


If they could speak, most of them who missed by a wide margin would say "I MEANT to do that". Especially the cats. Because as much as we try to identify the feline as female, cats totally think like 'Bros'.
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:34 PM on March 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


This Tumblr was the greatest thing my two-year-old has ever seen.
posted by Scattercat at 2:36 PM on March 10, 2014 [5 favorites]


It's only funny when it's cats. Yes, I'm evil! I felt terrible for the poor horses.
posted by haunted by Leonard Cohen at 2:37 PM on March 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


I'm pretty sure that third dolphin did it on porpoise.

i'll see myself out
posted by davejay at 2:39 PM on March 10, 2014 [22 favorites]


Yes, I imagine misjudging funny artificial surfaces would exonarate many of the kitties. I'm sure it's the case of the very first cat (in order of post dates of the pics), the way his rear legs sort of twitch as he's fully in the air makes me suspect he's thinking "where the fuck did the windowsill go?" as he plunges helplessly.
posted by Iosephus at 2:40 PM on March 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


Victoria, one of my two geriatric cats, is a klutz, bless her. At various points in her illustrious career, she has managed to fall off of shelves, sinks, desks, toilets, beds, and bathtubs (alas, there was water in the tub at the time...). This has been amusing 99% of the time. The remaining 1% involved a dislocated toe and torn ligament, which was not amusing to either of us, although it did impress the vet ("well, that took...talent").
posted by thomas j wise at 2:40 PM on March 10, 2014 [2 favorites]


It hardly seems fair to make fun of the current (March 10) one. It was ballsy as hell, and he came pretty damn close to making it. You can see the the point as he approaches the apex when he disengages the laws of physics for a little while to increase his distance.
posted by CaseyB at 2:43 PM on March 10, 2014 [2 favorites]


Oh come on, like anyone here hasn't tried this (or wanted to). Unfortunately I didn't end up in mirror-world :-(
posted by anonymisc at 2:45 PM on March 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


Yeah, the March 10th installment is the equivalent of Michael Jordan attempting a dunk from the 3-point line and falling juuust short.
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:46 PM on March 10, 2014


The opposite of some of these are when a cat jumps up onto a surface and has judged and executed it so perfectly that they're motionless, just past the apex, when they "land" at their destination, as if they'd already been sitting/standing there for minutes.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 2:52 PM on March 10, 2014 [5 favorites]


Oh god, guys, this horse is me. This horse is totally me in everything I do. Watch closely, pay attention to the ways that others fail, resolve that I will not meet the same fate. So I proceed in my own way...cautiously...carefully...and then completely fuck it up anyway, but made all the worse because of all the extra attention I received for trying to do it my own way. And also now I have a spectacular bruise on my shin. Every goddamn time.

Thanks for pointing out everything that's wrong with my life, failhorse. Thanks a lot.
posted by phunniemee at 2:54 PM on March 10, 2014 [18 favorites]


Somebody synchronized 21 of these in a single gif.
posted by moonmilk at 2:58 PM on March 10, 2014 [22 favorites]


Cats have very high percentages in Jump skill, typically 90% or more. What we see here are a large number of collected natural 00s on D100.

Everything can be put into terms of Call of Cthulhu.
posted by JHarris at 3:03 PM on March 10, 2014 [11 favorites]


Come on, bunny, that was pathetic!
posted by Omnomnom at 3:07 PM on March 10, 2014


I enjoyed the front page. Lots of grins.

The second page included too many in which the critter was most likely hurt or injured, which is not very cute.
posted by notyou at 3:11 PM on March 10, 2014


ohdearIcan't breathe... *wheez* ...can't stop laughing either...
posted by dabitch at 3:18 PM on March 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


And the one from May 22 shows the cat landing exactly where she expected to land, just on a rather less solid surface than she expected.

oddly enough, i thought you were referring to the one from may 3rd
posted by pyramid termite at 3:19 PM on March 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


"Wow, those are some hilariously clumsy cats, so much for feline grace and hunter skills."

A little higher in the kingdom, you may enjoy Big Cat FAILs.
posted by mykescipark at 3:29 PM on March 10, 2014 [4 favorites]


My girlfriend's filly quite deliberately did the Fosbury Flop over the paddock rail once, got up, and trotted off happily. She's an odd little horse, though. (And the rail is still dented.)
posted by restless_nomad at 3:54 PM on March 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


notyou: The second page included too many in which the critter was most likely hurt or injured, which is not very cute.

I think you can safely go on to pages 3 and 4. There's nothing worse than the dog jumping out of the car or the horse going completely ass over teakettle (although there's another horse that does it on page 3, it immediately gets back up and looks fine).
posted by Mitrovarr at 4:03 PM on March 10, 2014


Some cats may fail, but this cat is king of the world, at least for one day.

Those fish did not see it coming.
posted by Kevin Street at 4:04 PM on March 10, 2014 [4 favorites]


And the one from May 22 shows the cat landing exactly where she expected to land, just on a rather less solid surface than she expected.

I agree. That one reminded me of my (long deceased) Squeak. He used to take a run at the coffee table for the sheer joy of sliding across it. You could see the look of wheeee! in his eyes.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 4:11 PM on March 10, 2014 [3 favorites]


Oh man this makes my day
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:24 PM on March 10, 2014


I see nothing to suggest that this cat did not intend to faceplant into a pile of soft.

...shows the cat landing exactly where she expected to land, just on a rather less solid surface than she expected.


I think that cat knew exactly what it wanted to do.

Now I'm off to find a kitchen chair and a bean bag. BRB
posted by BlueHorse at 4:32 PM on March 10, 2014 [5 favorites]


I'd love to synch this up somehow.


My cat routinely sticks landings from the floor into the rim of the porcelain bathroom sink which is both amazing and irritating if I'm trying to shave. So I did the Mutombo "No no no, not in my house" and rejected him onto the bed where he planted onto a pillow and just paused like he was thinking about something, turned and looked at me like he was going to come after me when I was sleeping. It's one thing when they blow it themselves, but man they take it personally when you throw them off.
posted by Smedleyman at 4:38 PM on March 10, 2014 [2 favorites]


Todd the Squirrel
posted by pxe2000 at 5:02 PM on March 10, 2014 [3 favorites]


This makes me want to start the cat accidentally falls into water and goes totally apeshit tumblr.
posted by Captain Chesapeake at 5:09 PM on March 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


SAIL! with music.
posted by kinetic at 5:17 PM on March 10, 2014 [4 favorites]


Every car chase sequence ever, in two dog format. I have been giggling quietly (semi-quietly) at my desk for forever now.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 5:17 PM on March 10, 2014 [10 favorites]


Captain Chespeake, I would follow the shit out of that.
posted by dogheart at 5:18 PM on March 10, 2014


After all those misses I needed to watch a successful jump for a change.
posted by Blue Meanie at 5:19 PM on March 10, 2014


Every car chase sequence ever, in two dog format.

I was reminded more of the Cornetto trilogy fence scenes.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:33 PM on March 10, 2014 [3 favorites]


"After all those misses I needed to watch yt a successful jump for a change."

Servals are awesome, although people really shouldn't have one as a pet. They're wild animals. For the nearest thing, I've wanted a Savannah so bad for years now.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 6:08 PM on March 10, 2014


lol these animals are rubbish
posted by turbid dahlia at 6:59 PM on March 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


The opposite of some of these are when a cat jumps up onto a surface and has judged and executed it so perfectly that they're motionless, just past the apex, when they "land" at their destination, as if they'd already been sitting/standing there for minutes.

AAAAAGH my cat loves to do this, probably because she knows it gives me a goddamn heart attack. I will usually be sitting on the sofa minding my business and then CAT IS JUST THERE on the armrest.

She has not jumped, she has just materialized. Noiselessly and without disrupting the air. I never see her coming.

Little bastard.
posted by like_a_friend at 10:23 PM on March 10, 2014 [4 favorites]


I worried about the horse falling over too, but later on there's this one going completely haunches-over-teakettle and standing up like nothing happened, so I choose to believe they can all do that.

Yeah, they mostly can. It's terrifying to watch but horses fall down amazingly often and rarely get hurt beyond bruises or scrapes. I've seen horses fall down hundreds of times in every dumb way possible and many one or two get hurt. There are even narcoleptic horses that keel over on a regular basis and survive just fine. They have other, more effective, ways of hurting themselves.

The horse that goes over the paddock fence is just a foal. I'm sure he's fine and hopefully learned a valuable lesson about picking up his knees.

The horse who fell in the barn was scary because he appeared to land on a concrete floor but I have to admit I was wasn't paying much attention because I was distracted by the guy he nearly landed on.
posted by fshgrl at 11:24 PM on March 10, 2014 [2 favorites]


She has not jumped, she has just materialized.

My in-laws cat does this, last Christmas I turned around and she was sat on a chocolate cake my BiL had finished icing about an hour previously and which was on top of a wall mounted cupboard about 8' up. My own cat can't do anything but the tiniest jump due to a back problem, so we are lulled into a false sense of security.

(Later that holiday: "Thanks, no, I won't have a slice.")
posted by biffa at 5:10 AM on March 11, 2014 [1 favorite]


How did that cake not fall in from the cat's weight?
posted by jeather at 5:56 AM on March 11, 2014


It was more resting feline back end against the cake rather than using it as a chocolaty chaise. Isn't that enough?
posted by biffa at 7:44 AM on March 11, 2014 [1 favorite]


My cat Zach once did pretty much this, only he was jumping into the window trying to get a pigeon outside on the windowsill. He tumbled to the ground, and shook himself, looked up at me with a total "I meant to do that" look

...and, were he my old cat, would then spend just long enough grooming himself to calm down.. until he'd catch a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye and go, "Oh! PIGEON!" and jump at the window again.

I spent a pleasant spring afternoon once playing Diablo II with a repeated soundtrack of silence-leap-bonk-thud-licklicklick in the background for several hours. Bless his brainless little noggin.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 8:08 AM on March 11, 2014 [6 favorites]


I spent a pleasant spring afternoon once playing Diablo II with a repeated soundtrack of silence-leap-bonk-thud-licklicklick in the background for several hours. Bless his brainless little noggin.

My meanest Cat Mom moment came when I found a site online that had recordings of different "Bird calls local to your area." I was poking around on it, listening, but when I got to the one with the mourning dove suddenly Zach came tearing out of my room where he'd been lounging and raced up to the couch that abutted the window, and peered outside, hair bristling. He looked this way and that, then after a moment turned and started to climb down.

I hit "replay" on the sound, and he perked up and jumped back up to look out the window again. Then ran to the other window, searching.

I spent a good fifteen minutes playing that call again and again and watching him go nuts each time, all "dammit, I HEAR that damn bird, where is it?"
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:37 AM on March 11, 2014 [8 favorites]


My late corgi rode around in the canoe with us, and perched on the edge looking at the ducks and geese. It was one of her favorite things to do. One time-- and only once-- a particularly incautious knot of ducks allowed us to paddle within about ten feet, and the dog hurled herself into the lake after them. I swear I could see in her eye "NOW I've got them!" ... right until she hit the water.

Man, I wish I had that recorded. One of the funniest things I ever saw.
posted by norm at 8:37 AM on March 11, 2014 [3 favorites]


It was more resting feline back end against the cake rather than using it as a chocolaty chaise. Isn't that enough?

Not really, the other was a much better visual.

I admit that I let my cats eat off my plate if I am eating something they like, but I don't let them eat things that are for other people. A cat I once had did eat off a third of the cream or meringue off a pie -- I forget which -- and my mother was just going to serve the parts the cat had clearly not touched but my cousin offered to take that slice because she just pulled off the topping anyhow.
posted by jeather at 8:47 AM on March 11, 2014


For those worried about the dog jumping from the car, it's worth noting that the car is traveling at the speed of the dog running alongside. There's not much more reason for that dog to be seriously hurt than any dog that takes a fall while running.
posted by yoink at 10:17 AM on March 11, 2014 [1 favorite]


Just as I managed to breathe again, I read feckless fecal fear mongering "silence-leap-bonk-thud-licklicklick" description and now I'm crying laughing because I had a cat who did that on a daily basis.
Once he rummaged through the garbage can, managed to get a can of tuna stuck on his head and frogjumped backward in a total panic. The metallic noise from the can hitting the ground at every jump rustled me from rooms away to come running to save him. He was in full high-speed panic mode. JUMP! JUMP! JUMP under the kitchen table THUD! JUMP! THUD! I was throwing myself on the floor trying to catch this frog JUMP! JUMP! THUD! JUMP JUMP! kittey, and when I finally managed I yanked that can of tuna off his head and he inhaled the loudest nose-gasp for air that I've ever heard from a cat. Then he licked himself for several hours pretending he never panicked.
posted by dabitch at 10:37 AM on March 11, 2014 [5 favorites]


Its like someone designed a website specifically for my wife.
posted by blue_beetle at 11:03 AM on March 11, 2014 [1 favorite]


"I was poking around on it, listening, but when I got to the one with the mourning dove suddenly Zach came tearing out of my room where he'd been lounging and raced up to the couch that abutted the window, and peered outside, hair bristling."

*immediately googles 'mourning dove call sound'*

Crap, that didn't work. It got her attention, but no delightful dash to the window. Instead, she sat up, looked around, and then looked at me like, "I know you're responsible for this somehow, because you're watching me. So...can I sit on your lap?"
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 12:58 PM on March 11, 2014


What's the animal in March 14th? I think it's out of the Super Mario Bros game.

Also this site literally had me crying in laughter. LOVE.
posted by Salamandrous at 11:31 AM on March 16, 2014


It looks like a red panda.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:10 PM on March 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


GUYS

GUYS

GUYS

THIS IS IMPORTANT
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:01 PM on March 20, 2014 [3 favorites]


DOG ANNOUNCER BOB: Ouch. That does not look like the sort of accident you just walk away from.
DOG ANNOUNCER BILL: No, Bob, it sure doesn't. In fact, I'd bet that we're looking at the end of the season for Mittens here.
DOG ANNOUNCER BOB: Almost certainly, Bill. It looks like they're bringing out the catnip technician now.
DOG ANNOUNCER BILL: This is a real tragedy, and definitely not the first time we've seen the Box Jump claim a victim this way.
DOG ANNOUNCER BOB: That's right, Bill, although we're thankfully not seeing anything as bad as Milo's paw pinch from two houses ago.
DOG ANNOUNCER BILL: A terrible moment, Bob, I don't think I've heard yowling in those frequencies since.
DOG ANNOUNCER BOB: Well folks, don't change that dial! We'll be right back after kibble time with more coverage of today's Housewide Quadraped Gam–OH SWEET KIBBLES
posted by invitapriore at 12:30 PM on March 20, 2014 [4 favorites]


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