Feline graceful? Meet the people who love to shimmy... with their CATS! Owners and pets photographed dancing together



Ever felt, as many cat owners do, that your beloved pet was trying to tell you something?



According to some, what they are trying to say is: 'Fancy a bop?'

This is according to a small but very active community of 'cat dancers', who have been documented - along with their moggies, naturally - in a delightful new book, called, erm, Dancing with Cats.

Cat dancing! Incredible new book show the phenomenon of people who dance with their cats. Here, Arija sweeps low whilst her cat Ginger mimics an 'upright two-legged human strut'

Jumping for joy! Enid Blythe-Robinson has lived with her cat Elgar since he was six weeks old. Even as a kitten, she says, he was exceptionally graceful Tiny dancer: Petipa the cat responds with vigor to Ralph's flamboyant gestures. 'I come right down to the cat's level and begin purring, then push one foot out like a tail,' says Ralph

Adults and children have been pictured swinging, leaping and spinning, with their beloved pets replicating their moves. Sort of.

In the fascinating photographs, cats mirror their owners' movements and vice versa.

So how does it work?



Authors Burton Silver and Heather Busch say that when cats rush about excitedly, we often dismiss or ignore their behaviour. In fact, they claim, they are inviting us to dance with them.



And if you put in enough hours, you can move together in sync.

Purr-fect! Before dancing, Helen and her cat Boots, pictured here, do a series of mirroring exercises and engage in 'non-contact stroking'

Special bond: Selena dances with her cat, Zoot, pictured here. When she freezes mid-dance Zoot reacts by leaping over her