Cat Falls 26 Stories, Lives to Purr Again

abcnews ^ | May 30, 2009 | LINDSAY GOLDWERT

[JoeProBono]

The unbelievable tale of a cat named Lucky -- who fell 26 stories and survived -- doesn't quite prove the myth but it comes pretty close. In early May, Keri Hostetler was readying her lower Manhattan apartment for guests who were coming to visit. She cracked the window of her home office a few inches -- something she "never, ever did" -- just to air the place out. She left the door to the room ajar and got to work on her laundry.

[JoeProBono]

The unbelievable tale of a cat named Lucky -- who fell 26 stories and survived -- doesn't quite prove the myth but it comes pretty close.

[library user]

Let’s see a dog try that.

[Daffynition]

[rbosque]

8 lives left.

[JoeProBono]

[Daffynition]

[JoeProBono]

[Hot Tabasco]

My cat fell almost 3 feet off the bed and broke her hind leg........ two vets, $1,800.00 Cha Ching!

[KoRn]

This cat definitely has only 8 lives now.

[chemical_boy]

Dogs are smarter, they wouldn’t try to climb out a window 26 stories up...a cat would. ;)

[KoRn]

[library user]

I thought that was Rod Blagojevich in the background. :O)

[JoeProBono]

[JoeProBono]

[seatrout]

[DieHard the Hunter]

Proof positive that cats are dumber than dogs.

They ought to rename that cat “Dopey”.

[JoeProBono]

[The KG9 Kid]

The second frame from the top looks like he’s saying ‘Allow me to demonstrate. Watch closely’.

[Daffynition]

[Daffynition]

If Blago had a dog, I’m sure it would love him unconditionally. ;)

[JoeProBono]

[Daffynition]

[Daffynition]

[JoeProBono]

[meowmeow]

We have to be careful because for some reason our cats - a brother and sister - do NOT land on their feet if they fall. They just crash in whatever position they land in without even trying to make any course corrections on the way down. I guess they missed that lesson in cat school...

[Daffynition]

My cat stays right where I put her. Fail safe.

[Yardstick]

What a funny lack of instinct. Or maybe they just expect you to swoop in and catch them ;)

[LiberConservative]

Good Kitty!

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Or maybe they just expect you to swoop in and catch them ;)

Welfare recipients.

[ansel12]

A couple of New York city vets that studied the fall of cats from the local high rises said that a cat was more likely to survive a 26 story fall than a three story fall.

The damage from the lower falls are easy to understand but the explanation for the better survival rate of the high falls is that the cat reaches terminal velocity anyway, but that after a point the cat relaxes and when it lands the blow is spread from it’s feet, legs and to its rib cage and belly, most of them die or at least are badly damaged, but some of them survive.

[RichInOC]

Okay. Now let’s try it off the Empire State.

[john in springfield]

Now that’s funny!

[Slings and Arrows]

[Slings and Arrows]

A couple of New York city vets that studied the fall of cats from the local high rises said that a cat was more likely to survive a 26 story fall than a three story fall.

The potential flaw is this: the study was based only on cats that were brought into the hospital. Clearly dead cats, your basic fell-20-stories-and-looks-like-it-came-out-of-a-can-of-Spam cats, go to the Dumpster, not the emergency room. This may skew the statistics and make falls from great distances look safer than they are.

[ansel12]

That is a good link, and does a much better job of explaining what I was trying to explain. Luckily I wasn’t too far off in my description, considering I only read an article on it about 15 years ago.

[Slings and Arrows]

Cecil Adams generally does a good job. His archive of columns is well worth browsing through.

[BenLurkin]

[Slings and Arrows]

Whoever made that pic had an excellent imagination. I love my cats, but they’re no angels!

[Hot Tabasco]

I guess they missed that lesson in cat school...

Well, at the time, Squeek was (I hope she's not watching as I type this) FAT! About 15 lbs. She tried to jump on the bed and for some reason I accidentally pushed her back and she landed wrong which resulted in the broken leg.

The vet I took her to wrapped her leg in some sort of cast which was supported by a rod which went up the leg and over the back and pretty much immobilized her. It was awful. $650.........That was Monday. She immediately stopped eating, could barely get to her litter box.

Thursday evening I called my sister and told her what happened and she immediately called her vet, who was also a personal friend, and he called me back at 10:00 p.m. that Thusday night and told me to bring squeek in the following morning.

When I brought her in, he couldn't believe what my vet had done to her. Squeek's leg was completely broken in half with a third piece of the bone floating free.

He told me to leave Squeek and what he would do is insert a rod down the entire lower leg, wrap it with a piece of wire to hold the broken off bone in place then put a protective wrap on the whole lower leg while it healed.

When I brought her home, she immediately started eating and drinking and she was mobile enough to start using her litter box again. About 6 or 8 weeks later, I took her back to the Vet, he removed the rod, stitched up the incision and the rest is history except for the fact that I put her on diet food and she is now down to her ideal fighting weight...........$1,200 but well worth it.

[meowmeow]

That's horrible! Poor Squeek! I'm glad your sister's vet stepped in! I've been using the same vet - at a small, dedicated cat hospital - since 1992. I know she is thinking of retiring and I dread having a stranger take care of my babies!

One of my kitties is bordering on fatness. My husband seems to be in denial about it (hmmmm...he is also overweight) but maybe if I tell him your story, he will work with me on slimming her down a little.

[meowmeow]

Or maybe they just expect you to swoop in and catch them ;)

Welfare recipients.

They have quite the entitlement attitude. We're pretty sure they snuck out and voted democrat last fall.

[Hot Tabasco]

One of my kitties is bordering on fatness. My husband seems to be in denial about it

My niece is now a vet and she stresses beyond belief the necessity of cats being forced to maintain their ideal body weight. According to her, over weight cats are prone to all kinds of maladys that significantly shorten their lifetimes.

As a side note, you're probably aware of it, a cat that stops eating for even a couple days requires immediate attention because they will ultimately go into liver failure.........Thats another story of an adopted cat that I only had for 6 weeks........$800......cha ching!

[meowmeow]

My boy cat was sick and was on medication and suddenly stopped eating (maybe not stopped but cut way back - the meds were messing with his appetite or something) and I didn't know it right away because his sister was eating her food and then his food!

Suddenly I had one fat cat and one skeleton cat. It happened so fast it was scary! The vet said to stop the meds and he started to eat again if I hand fed him. It's been a month now and he is finally eating normally and bulking up and she has at least stopped gaining. But now I'm on to their tricks and more observant about who eats what!

[Fawn]

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

[Slings and Arrows]

Awww!

[Fawn]

LOL

[TheOldLady]

It’s hard to find a good veterinarian for some reason. We’ve known a lot of them over the years, and they’ve made some really, really bad diagnoses and done some really stupid medicating. A couple of them have experimented on our cats until they finally figured out what was wrong. I’ve lost cats to their mistakes, Muffin was one of them. He died at 15 from kidney failure from taking a drug he didn’t need. Slinker died of lymphoma after four different diagnoses, all wrong, and $1,500 in treatments, drugs, and a specialist. He was only 8. I could go on.

[TheOldLady]

Joe, is this a real picture? Are there really kittens this size? This cat looks to in proportion to be as young as it is small. It's a photoshop job, right?

[TheOldLady]

That’s “too in proportion.”

[JoeProBono]