Cat Survives 80-Foot Fall From Tree

http://www.local6.com/news/8163767/detail.html

"Matthew AKA NMR ( NO MORE RETAIL )" 10 points a troll
@linethetrollsup.com wrote in message
...
http://www.local6.com/news/8163767/detail.html


My daughter's cat fell from the top of her old Italian Cyprus tree and was
unhurt. I'd guess it was close to that tall. Worst part was the cat
continued to climb in the tree.

Daughter finally had the tree removed. Partly because it was too close to
the house, but also because the cat was scaring her.

Jo

On Tue, 21 Mar 2006 22:11:25 GMT, "Matthew AKA NMR \( NO MORE RETAIL
\)" 10 points a troll @linethetrollsup.com wrote:

http://www.local6.com/news/8163767/detail.html


The news article says that the cat jumped from 80 feet up, but the
video clip I saw on CNN looked more like the branch it was standing on
broke. I think most cats would have more sense than to voluntarily
jump from that high up.

The smaller an animal is, the more likely it is to survive a fall,
since air drag will have more effect. If one animal is half the
length, half the height, and half the width of another of the same
shape, the smaller animal will have 1/4 the surface area but 1/8 the
volume (and hence 1/8 the mass), so there is twice the relative air
drag.

I think a cat is probably pretty close to the upper limit of being
able to survive a fall that far, at least without major injury.

--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

On Tue 21 Mar 2006 09:22:04p, John F. Eldredge wrote in
rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
):

The news article says that the cat jumped from 80 feet up, but
the video clip I saw on CNN looked more like the branch it was
standing on broke. I think most cats would have more sense than
to voluntarily jump from that high up.

The smaller an animal is, the more likely it is to survive a
fall, since air drag will have more effect. If one animal is
half the length, half the height, and half the width of another
of the same shape, the smaller animal will have 1/4 the surface
area but 1/8 the volume (and hence 1/8 the mass), so there is
twice the relative air drag.

I think a cat is probably pretty close to the upper limit of
being able to survive a fall that far, at least without major
injury.

I saw a video that someone shot of the cats' fall. It did land sort
of on its side, and did get right up and run off. The news story
kept stressing that the cat was fine, but we know that cats hide
their pain unless they're dying. I can't imagine it walked away
without injury as was reported. The cat is probably really hurting
with at least bruises and hopefully no bones broken, like ribs,
that can't be seen without an xray. That hadda hurt. Glad it's down
after a week in a tree.

--
Cheryl

if you listened to the video they took it to the vet and it was fine
according to the vet
"Cheryl Sellner" wrote in message
...
On Tue 21 Mar 2006 09:22:04p, John F. Eldredge wrote in
rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
):

The news article says that the cat jumped from 80 feet up, but
the video clip I saw on CNN looked more like the branch it was
standing on broke. I think most cats would have more sense than
to voluntarily jump from that high up.

The smaller an animal is, the more likely it is to survive a
fall, since air drag will have more effect. If one animal is
half the length, half the height, and half the width of another
of the same shape, the smaller animal will have 1/4 the surface
area but 1/8 the volume (and hence 1/8 the mass), so there is
twice the relative air drag.

I think a cat is probably pretty close to the upper limit of
being able to survive a fall that far, at least without major
injury.

I saw a video that someone shot of the cats' fall. It did land sort
of on its side, and did get right up and run off. The news story
kept stressing that the cat was fine, but we know that cats hide
their pain unless they're dying. I can't imagine it walked away
without injury as was reported. The cat is probably really hurting
with at least bruises and hopefully no bones broken, like ribs,
that can't be seen without an xray. That hadda hurt. Glad it's down
after a week in a tree.

--
Cheryl

Cheryl Sellner wrote:

I saw a video that someone shot of the cats' fall. It did land sort
of on its side, and did get right up and run off. The news story
kept stressing that the cat was fine, but we know that cats hide
their pain unless they're dying.

On the same web page where the video was, there was a story about
it, and it said that the woman found the cat hiding under a parked
car and took it to the vet, where it was found to be OK. No broken
bones or internal injuries.

Joyce

John F. Eldredge wrote:

The smaller an animal is, the more likely it is to survive a fall,
since air drag will have more effect. If one animal is half the
length, half the height, and half the width of another of the same
shape, the smaller animal will have 1/4 the surface area but 1/8 the
volume (and hence 1/8 the mass), so there is twice the relative air
drag.

There's that, and there's also the fact that, with all the joints and
vertabrae a cat has, they can turn in mid-air. Most animals can't do
that as well as a cat, if at all.

Joyce

On Tue 21 Mar 2006 09:48:00p, wrote in rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
):

Cheryl Sellner wrote:

I saw a video that someone shot of the cats' fall. It did land
sort of on its side, and did get right up and run off. The
news story kept stressing that the cat was fine, but we know
that cats hide their pain unless they're dying.

On the same web page where the video was, there was a story
about it, and it said that the woman found the cat hiding under
a parked car and took it to the vet, where it was found to be
OK. No broken bones or internal injuries.

Joyce


Ok, I feel better. I know there were many people around, but I just
had a fear that for the cameras they were saying the cat was ok.
I'm just really sensitive about the plight of animals lately. In
the last month I've seen 3 roaming pet dogs. ONe was my neighbor's,
and I told them she got out of their yard, one was a stranger, but
had a collar, but I couldn't get close because I'd spook it into
the road if I tried, so had to keep my distance, but it ran off to
the road behind my house (not a busy road back there) and the other
day a dog running on the side of the road a couple of miles down
during rush hour on my way home. It had a leash dragging, we all
slowed down, the dog was clearly spooked by the traffic, and we all
drove by slowly. As I got further down the road I thought I should
stop, go back, try to get the leash. I had visions of "I
shoulda..." I think since we were all going slow at the time the
first driver saw the dog, I could have stopped in the middle of the
road without being hit, but you never think of that when thinking
"what to do". When I got to my driveway, I turned around and went
back but didn't see the dog. I dreamed about him last night. Hoping
his people found him.

--
Cheryl

I saw film of this on the news. It looked to me that after the kitty
fell a ways and had managed to get into the "feet-down" position, he
hit a branch that flipped him over onto his back. It was amazing to
see him manipulating his body in the air to get into "landing
position".

Although he immediately jumped up and ran off, I was worried about a
back injury because I thought he'd landed on his back. Glad to hear he
really was ok!



Jeanne Hedge, as directed by Natasha

============
http://www.jhedge.com

On Tue, 21 Mar 2006 22:36:33 -0500, Jeanne Hedge
wrote:

I saw film of this on the news. It looked to me that after the kitty
fell a ways and had managed to get into the "feet-down" position, he
hit a branch that flipped him over onto his back. It was amazing to
see him manipulating his body in the air to get into "landing
position".

Although he immediately jumped up and ran off, I was worried about a
back injury because I thought he'd landed on his back. Glad to hear he
really was ok!

It looked to me too like he had landed on his back.

--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria