08-15-2012, 11:00 PM
testcase wrote:
I'm guessing that the drop would be 12' ~ 15' (depending on window design). What kitty is landing on can play a big part as does the condition of the cat. Concrete, not so good; grass less harmful. If the cat jumped on it's own, I'd expect a better outcome than if it got pushed, thrown, startled etc. Strangely enough, if you go very high (I believe it was four stories or higher), the likelihood of survival actually increases as does the likelihood of injury.
I saw an article about this years ago. It's true that, up to a point, the higher they fall, the less likely they are to sustain serious injury. It has something to do with their ability to right themselves in mid-air, and then instinctively spread out their body in order to slow themselves down. IIRC, they said that for the first 10-20 feet, they could sustain serious injury because they don't have time to right themselves. But from 20 to probably 150 feet (I think they mentioned 18 stories of a building), they tended to be able to survive without serious injury. They took their data from vets in NYC I think.