Regarding your July 19 column on cats always landing (relatively) unharmed on their feet after falling considerable distances, I thought you might be interested in knowing about an experiment carried out by a friend of mine when I lived in rural northern California. I should stress that this person is reliable (not given to lying or stretching the truth) and is the kind who would carry out the experiment described below. I should also stress that I was not a direct or indirect participant in this experiment, but that I have every reason to believe it is true.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
A cat was dropped from a Cessna 150 at the standard airport pattern altitude of 800 feet. An observer on the ground (not me) who was an experiment participant (that is, they were expecting the cat to be coming and were on the lookout for it) noted that the cat impacted on all four feet, after which it ran away at great speed and was never seen again. Since the cat survived well enough to run away, the experiment seems to support the “flying squirrel” thesis [i.e., that falling cats spread themselves out like flying squirrels, enabling them to survive falls of any distance].
Back when I was a kid we used to take the cat up on the roof and toss it off. It was just a one-story house, so the cat didn’t have far to fall. That little bugger would spread out his arms and legs and glide on down, just like a flying squirrel. He never seemed to mind it in the least. He’d let us drag him up there again and again. It seems they have a natural ability to protect themselves from falls. Now that’s science! –Dave, via AOL
- The flying-squirrel hypothesis may well explain why some cats survive extremely long falls. No one has demonstrated that all cats will survive long falls. On the contrary, from anecdotal accounts we know that at least some cats are killed–the deaths just aren’t reported.
Is there something you need to get straight? Cecil Adams can deliver the Straight Dope on any topic. Write Cecil Adams at the Chicago Reader, 11 E. Illinois, Chicago 60611; E-mail him at cecil@chireader.com; or visit the Straight Dope area at America Online, keyword: Straight Dope.
