Conference misery::feline_v1

    What an awful thing to have happen!  We live on the second story of a
    condo too and in the morning I always open two of the windows so the
    girls can have fresh air and check out the action outside.  At first I
    felt really paranoid cause my over active imagination would see the
    screens fallling off and the girls plunging down.  After reading your
    note I'm glad that my husband checked all the screens when I told him
    of my fears.
    
    I am so glad that Otis is okay and did not get hurt by the fall.  I am
    sure that the incident really shook him up, but lucky for us that our
    fur faces have such fast reflexes.
    
    I hope your feeling better too!
    
    Lori...Sausha...Misty Rae...Freeway
                                       

    Usually read-only here, but I just had to join in...
    
    My Wizard just had his cast removed after having it on for six weeks.
    He had jumped on the windowsill of my sewing room to watch the
    squirrels. He and the screen dropped two stories to the sidewalk
    below. He seemed alright at first, but two days later his foot was
    swollen and he was limping. X-rays at the vet showed a hairline
    fracture. His first cast was on for two weeks, but he was limping the
    day after it came off. Next X-rays showed the fracture hadn't healed. 
    Four more weeks in a cast. Everything seems fine now. The vet has 
    warned that there may be ligament damage that will take months to heal 
    and he may end up with arthritis. Wizard is 9 years old and we think 
    he may have hit the edge of the porch roof before hitting the ground 
    so he may not have had a chance to land on his feet.
    
    You may want to watch your cat for a few days to make sure everything
    is really alright.
    
    NancyS

    Oh how awful to hear about Wizard....I will definately keep an alert
    eye on Otis.  
    
    I live alone there - and I don't have a ladder - so I had no way of
    checking on my windows on that side of the condo.  I just assumed
    (I should know better than to assume ANYTHING) that these workers
    put the screens back on...knowing that something/one could fall
    from them.  It appears that they don't give a d@mn about something
    like that.
    
    From what I understand - the contactors were not paid in full 
    because of the lousy job they did and had to come back and 'clean
    up'....in order to fullfill the contract.
    
    Marilyn
    

    I have two indoor only kitties. I live in a Tri-level contemporary.
    These two little devils scare me. They walk along the banister up
    stairs. The upstairs is all open so you can sort of see downstairs.
    I know cats love height. But I would hate to see them fall down. They
    are declawed in the front only. So this means they have much to grip
    with. I had a cat before these two little guys and he never did this.
    
    When I see them walking along I don't really want to yell at them
    because I don't want them to lose there balance and fall. Not to
    mention when they jump up from the floor who's to say they don't mis
    judge and jump right over to the bottom level.
    
    I just hold my breath and pray.
    
    Angela, mother to Wesley and Frisco

    Re: .4
    
    Angela:  God, the new place we are moving two is Victorian and has an
    oak staircase with the opening like you describe and the oak banister
    upstairs.  I have been thinking about how Otis is going to handle
    this....and am worried about his curiosity.  
    
    I wonder...does anybody else have cats living in a place with a
    staircase like this...is there a way to discourage acrobatics as
    soon as we move?
    
    ...and by the way, after Otis fell - he was trying to get to the
    window again for fresh air.  Guess the fall didn't intimidate him
    that much!  I will say, however, that he has been VERY lovable and
    acting a bit more 'humble'    ;*)
    
    Marilyn
    

Re .4, .5
    
Our house is very contemporary, with an 'open' staircase (each tread is a board
with carpet wrapped all of the way around it); we have 2 flying bridges that go
across an atrium to other rooms, and a loft also; these all just have open
railings; we also have some windows in 2nd floor rooms that open out onto
the atrium.
    
Snickers and Raisin are in 7th heaven, this house was made for cats. They not
only run around on top of all the railings, they like to sit in the upstairs
windows and watch the rest of the house. It is about 12 feet down to a tile
floor. No none has fallen yet...
    
One thing that happened several times that had us in histerics was that when
Snickers was little, he would try to 'go all the way around' a carpeted step,
upside down, hanging on to the carpet for dear life. He sometimes made it,
but sometimes he would not be able to hold on and would go crashing to the
floor. It was only about a 6-7 foot fall, and he never got hurt. He seems to
have outgrown that phase. 
    
Neither cat has actually ever jumped or fallen from upstairs, they seem 
    to be quite aware of what not to do...Raisin, although
    heavier, is much more agile than Snickers, and really travels the railings;
    Snickers isn't quite so sure of himself, so I have noticed that he is not
    so daring about it. I think that if it is part of their everyday
    environment, they know what they can do...it's not as worrisome as a
    screen that is supposed to be secure falling out...
    
    Debbie Snickers and Raisin

re:  screens falling out

I have taken all-weather tape (silver stuff used around air conditioners)
and taped in all my screens from the outside.  It might be difficult to
do for a multiple story dwelling, but it IS worth it to keep in cats, dogs,
and children.  The tape is sturdy and I replace it when I wash the windows,
approx. 3 times a year.  This is the cheapest, surest way to keep your
cats IN when you want to open the window and get fresh air.  Tape the screen
frame to the wall of the house.  It only takes about $10.00 and an hour
or two.  It really KEEPS THEM IN....They simply cannot pull the tape off
the house by pushing from inside.  That, and getting the screens re-done with
METAL MESH, fixed my problem of "escapes" or "fall outs" for good.

    Sorry to hear about all the fallen kitties :(
    
    I often bring up my concern to my husband about the cats falling
    out the window.  But he never listens.  I get the usual.....you're
    too paranoid, a worrier, a mother hen, leave the cats alone, etc.
    etc.  Well, I am going to rush home tonight to relay all these
    stories and DEMAND he listen to me.  No more wide open windows
    in my house!
    
    Jo Ann

    
    	Sorry to hear about Otis, Marylin.  I hate to say it, but when I
    first read your base note I had to laugh!  Sneakers has an annoying
    habit of falling out of relatively high places as well, such as from
    the top of the kitchen cabinets, out of trees, etc.  Ususally all is
    well, and he comes up with that "I meant to do that" sneer.
    
    	I hope Otis will continue to be fine.  Greetings from his sibling
    in Texas!
    
    	McQ
    

    I'm glad to hear that Otis appears to be ok too.
    
    We also have the open staircase and, especially when the kittens were
    little, I worried about it alot.  But as someone else said, they
    do seem to know what to do and what not to do.
    
    Then theres Mao.....  Who in a fit of frenzied, purr-rolling, rolled
    right off the second story deck!  she was totally unhurt, just a bit
    surprized until she realized that she was in "THE YARD"!  At that 
    point she purrupped and proceeded to race around the yard, up the
    tree etc etc with Jack in hot pursuit.  Obviously she hadn't sustained
    any damage.  The fall was bout 14 feet.
    

    I have a real fear of heights, especially watching one of my
    babies walk a railing on the second floor....Mommy goes nuts and
    Dad says don't worry about it.
    
    But we do have a porch on the second floor that only has 2X4's criss-
    crossed and it is pretty open.  To date...I have seen one cat jump
    because he was scared when someone starting walking up the stairs,
    and I have seen one fall because of a cat fight on the porch.  In
    both cases....they walked away fine.  (I was a basket case)
    
    Well I keep insisting we will put more railing up there...so I don't
    walk around with this fear.  The cats seemed to love it.
    
    Sandy
    
    

    We have one of those tall cat trees from Cat House Originals, and
    Kelsey likes to sit on the very top perch.  Only problem is, he is a
    very long cat and cannot seem to get comfortable.  Several times he has
    literally rolled right off the tree and onto the floor while trying to
    find the right position to lie in.  I guess you have to be there cause
    it is really funny to watch this dignified looking cat roll off the
    tree with and desparately try to catch the middle perches with his
    claws on the way down!!
    

      Actually, cats have TREMENDOUS resiliency relative to falling.
    I remember a case last summer on the news out of N.Y.C....a cat
    actually fell out of a window on the 17th floor(YES..SEVENTEENTH
    FLOOR!) and survived with relatively minor injuries. The Vet that
    treated him said he had a badly bruised breastbone, one broken leg and
    three sprains, but nothing was actually "life-threatening". The vet
    said that if it had been a 5 or 6 floor drop it may have been
    different, but at about the 5th floor of a drop a cat would typically
    have righted itself and spread-eagled and would begin to slow it's
    decent from air resistance....sort of like a sail-plane.
    
      Not that I'd reccomend kitties jumping from 17th floor windows or
    anything though....
    
    JMcD

    It's amazing what nerves can do to you.  
    
    Tracey was right in the middle of watching 'America's Funniest Video's
    when I yelled for her to open the door and let Otis in.  Obviously we
    were both VERY upset and gave him food and a lot of hugging and loving,
    but after we both calmed down....Tracey started to laugh - and then
    I started to laugh.
    
    Thank God he is o.k. - I still am watching him for signs of a 'limp'
    or change in eating/litter box habits...but so far he seems perfectly
    fine.
    
    Marilyn
    

    Just to add to the stories...
    
    When I took Wizard to the vet after his two story fall, the vet told me
    about a cat he had seen the day before. That cat fell 60 (yes, 60) feet
    out of a tree and walk away completely unharmed. The owner had seen it
    happen saying the cat was a barely visible speck up in the tree and 
    and was about to panic (the owner, that is) around how to get the cat
    down. The cat apparently slipped or lost it's balance, but made it down
    safely.
    
    NancyS

    Geez, I can't believe all these stories about cats falling and
    not getting hurt.  Some cats (and their people) have all the luck!
    
    There we were last May with Missy who tried to jump down about 5 to 7
    feet (at least that's what we suspect happened) from one deck to the
    rail of the lower deck AND ended up with all the carpels or metacarpels
    (or whatever the heck they are) dislocated!!!
    
    Then came Tufts, orthepedic surgery, 2 months in a cast, one month
    in a cage (keeping Mummy awake most of the night the whole month),
    all of which added up to megabucks!!!  (Thank God, Daddy got the
    good DEC package!)
    
    And, here you all are with kitties falling more than twice the
    height and getting up and walking away!!!
    
    I guess Missy is just klutsier than we thought!
    
    Barbara (Melody, Brittany and Missy the klutz!)

       Re last few...
       Actually, the point i was trying to make is that the INTERMEDIATE
    HEIGHT is the most DANGEROUS. If they fall a LONGER distance..such as
    the 17 floor and high tree Kids did...they reach that point where they
    begin to sort of "float" to a certain extent. I'm sure thye hit the
    ground and reeally know they've been "bopped" and probably have the
    wind knocked out of them, but they USUALLY don't injure themselves as
    severely as a three-story or four-story fall would hurt them... 
      Maybe we shold invent "Kitty-chutes" and train'em to "sky dive"....
    
      JM

    I typed an article from a newpaper about falls.  I'm not sure where
    it is now, but it does talk about higher falls vs. Intermediate
    falls and basically agrees with John.