11/2005 - Watercolors only. So much detail was lost compared to the sketches that I've retouched it with pencils again.

11/2005 - But does the pose make sense? May a feline taur jump backwards while it is grasping to a tree and actually catch another tree? I did this small study to see if I could guess a way. I think it is possible, but the taur must rotate around its center of mass in a rather complex way, so here's my vision of the movement. It's just a quick note, but maybe I'll return on this cute problem later to show better what I mean. :-)
1) The start: Fuocoblu climbing onto a tree. Note that the hands are mostly used to hold onto branches etc., the feet mostly to stab with claws, and the handpaws can be used in both ways, altough the latter is possibly the most useful since they are very strong.
2) Preparing for the jump, shi must give a strong push...
3) The biggest push is that given by the handpaws. The upper half of the body is thrust strongly backwards...
4) ...and even more here. It looks very weird, but as a matter of fact a taur has the center of mass in a weird position. I've tried to mark it with the blue cross. In order to turn 180° I think the taur must pivot around an axis passing for the center of mass, and the axis should be kept vertical, else shi won't be able to grasp the target tree with all the five limbs of the lower body (tail is the fifth). The lowbody has a larger mass, so the upbody must bend backwards in order to bring the center of mass out of the body, just behind the lower shoulders. This way the mass of the lowbody can then be exploited for the rotation. Physics of the jump are similar to the physics behind the Fosbury Flop high jumping style.
5) The center of mass is now behind the lower shoulders, out of the body. The left handpaw is stretched fully to help the rotation while the right one is held tight to the body.
6) Rotation is almost complete. Note that the tail is helping smoothly the rotation if it was properly placed at the start.
7) At this point the taur needs to give a strong "kidney thrust" if shi wants to use the back legs for landing too, and shi needs to bend the back as much as possible. We all know a feline can do it. This is more or less the step illustrated in the big picture.
8) Landing safely. Note that the hands are used mostly to absorb the impact. Another good reason to keep the upbody bent backwards is that you don't want to land with it first: the head should be the last body part arriving on the tree, because breaking your nose and a couple teeth against a tree is not funny. The tail is used to absorb the impact too, but it could also grasp a nerby branch if needed.

10/2005 - After the picture I tried to put on paper the full jump sequence I had in mind, but the first time I got confused. In this sequence the taur is turning on the wrong side and the last stages do not look smooth. I leave the sketch online anyway becuase it is cute.

10/2005 - Corrected a few things: redrawn the right handpaw, enlarged the breasts and corrected their shape, changed tail position so it can be more useful to absorb the impact. Also enlarged the wrist as it should be very robust to bear the big weight, it should be like the one of a big feline, not humanlike as it was in previous version.

9/2005 - Much more inspiration here. :-)

5/2005 - A first attempt at the concept. I was tired and missed many things about feline anatomy and I needed to take a better look. The snake is one of the pets of Fuocoblu but there was no room for it in the second version of the picture.