Question: can a cat get so fat that it can bounce on its tummy?

Dave Bond answered on 16 Mar 2015:

Hi Ezzy,

Probably….. Though it would be quite unhealthy. I would imagine it would get so fat as its belly would drag on the floor. After all its legs are not all that long.
Bounce … Probably not.
To be able to bounce the cat skin would have to hold the compressive forces of an impact and bounce back. Skin and fat is bad at doing this. Try bouncing a warm block of lard. It does not compress well and does not spring back. It would absorb an impact well though. Muscle is more springy, but again not so much to bounce.

(If you are squeamish stop reading here) ….

My wife did forensic science at university and she says that humans do not bounce when they impact something hard, for her this was a floor after falling from a building. The results are more like dropping a baloon full of water not like a ball full of air.

But this explains part of why a cat would not bounce, like humans they are made up of water and it does not compress well. So the water wants to move out of the way, of the impact the forces on the skin would well basically ….. (go splat)