Cat people-- likelihood of a cat jumping from a 2nd floor window and not being injured?

[mattkime]

cats can fly

[ka jowct]

Years ago, one of mine fell from a second floor window into the concrete area outside the building's basement entrance. (Thanks so much, Other Human who opened the window without inserting the screen, never saw the cat go out, shut the window, and went on his merry way, leaving me to search frantically when I got home hours later, with no reason to think she was outside. Grrrrrrr.) Luckily I found her before she had spent a night under the basement steps in shock, in 40-degree rainy weather, which probably would have killed her. She had a split palate, partially collapsed lungs, and a back injury that turned out to be a good thing because it kept her from getting very far. After a trip to the AMC ($$) and a month of cage rest so that her back could heal, she recovered from it.

So 2-floor falls onto concrete: not good.

[Paul F.]

A jump is different from a fall...

I watched one of my (now passed) cats jump from a tree a good 40 feet off the ground, land with a very audible THUMP-OOOHHHFF!!!! on the grrass, pick himself up after a stunned moment, and walk off like it was (almost) nothing.

I examined him thoroughly (as thoroughly as a non-vet layman, anyway) and he was fine. As I recall, he didn't climb any more trees.

Said cats sister also jumped very nonchalantly from a second story window, landing much more lightly and delicately (she was a lighter more delicate cat... Al was a big husky cat).

My current cat, Max, has jumped off a 10' roof. He PREFERS when I have my car parked so he can jump 4 feet onto the roof of the car, then down... but he doesn't let the 10' jump bother him much. Fortunately, the novelty of walking around the roof looking down on everything has pretty much worn off, so he doesn't go up there much.

[Black]

ka jowct wrote:
Years ago, one of mine fell from a second floor window into the concrete area outside the building's basement entrance. (Thanks so much, Other Human who opened the window without inserting the screen, never saw the cat go out, shut the window, and went on his merry way, leaving me to search frantically when I got home hours later, with no reason to think she was outside. Grrrrrrr.) Luckily I found her before she had spent a night under the basement steps in shock, in 40-degree rainy weather, which probably would have killed her. She had a split palate, partially collapsed lungs, and a back injury that turned out to be a good thing because it kept her from getting very far. After a trip to the AMC ($$) and a month of cage rest so that her back could heal, she recovered from it.

So 2-floor falls onto concrete: not good.

Odd. Was the cat elderly or overweight?

[hal]

I think the mass of the cat is important. A light weight cat can fall A LONG way without injury, I'm sure...

Tammy, pictured below had fallen from this perch at least twice (maybe dozens of times, but twice that I witnessed)... on to cement (15'?) without injury. She was not a young cat - maybe 9-11 years old at the time. She was a very small cat.

[Todd's keyboard]

Radiolab had a story about falling cats.

http://www.radiolab.org/2010/sep/20/

Todd's furry keyboard

[freeradical]

I think the operative word here is impulse.

J = impulse
F=force
T=time

J=F*T

Solved for force

J/T = F


So, if a cat hits the ground on its paws, it's able to increase the length of time it takes for the collision to occur, which reduces the instantaneous force.

It's why we have crash barriers on the interstate highways.

[Paul F.]

freeradical wrote:
I think the operative word here is impulse.

J = impulse
F=force
T=time

J=F*T

Solved for force

J/T = F


So, if a cat hits the ground on its paws, it's able to increase the length of time it takes for the collision to occur, which reduces the instantaneous force.

It's why we have crash barriers on the interstate highways.

I KNEW it....
Cat's DO have Impulse Engines!

[AllGold]

Black wrote:
[quote=ka jowct]
Years ago, one of mine fell from a second floor window into the concrete area outside the building's basement entrance. (Thanks so much, Other Human who opened the window without inserting the screen, never saw the cat go out, shut the window, and went on his merry way, leaving me to search frantically when I got home hours later, with no reason to think she was outside. Grrrrrrr.) Luckily I found her before she had spent a night under the basement steps in shock, in 40-degree rainy weather, which probably would have killed her. She had a split palate, partially collapsed lungs, and a back injury that turned out to be a good thing because it kept her from getting very far. After a trip to the AMC ($$) and a month of cage rest so that her back could heal, she recovered from it.

So 2-floor falls onto concrete: not good.

Odd. Was the cat elderly or overweight?
I think a lot would also depend on what exactly the cat landed on. A level surface should be ok but something not level like steps or debris would be bad.

[rz]

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.