Sugar the miracle cat survives 19-story fall

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57402771/sugar-the-miracle-cat-survives-19-story-fall/?tag=strip

(CBS News) BOSTON - Rescuers are calling her a miracle cat. Her name is Sugar, a white ball of fluff that survived a fall from her owner's window on the 19th floor of a Boston high rise, reports CBS News affiliate WBZ-Boston.

"I look out my window all the time and I think, 'Wow, this is really high,'" Sugar's owner, Brittany Kirk told WBZ. She believes in the old saying about nine lives. "I think she probably used one or two or maybe eight."

When workers with the Animal Rescue League examined the cat, they found it had minor bruising on the lungs, but no broken bones, no cuts, and no serious injuries. They estimate she fell between 150 and 200 feet.

Surprisingly, rescuers say studies show cats have a better chance of surviving falls when they're from higher than nine stories.

[xchrom]

1. Good girl, Sugar. Glad you're ok.

Hope you scared a few pigeons on the way down.

[FarCenter]

2. A "white ball of fluff" doesn't have a very high terminal velocity

A low ratio of weight to cross sectional area and high drag coefficient means that the cat won't fall very fast.

After a few floors it is falling at the maximum velocity.

[Speck Tater]

6. I seem to recall reading once

that a typical cat reaches terminal velocity after falling about 3 floors, so a 30 story fall is no worse than a 3 story fall for them. The extra height gives them more time to align themselves properly for a safe landing, which is probably why they have a better survival rate with higher falls.

[Ian David]

10. I wonder how many die of a heart attack on the way down. n/t

[snagglepuss]

3. The question is whether Sugar was white before he jumped.

[FarCenter]

4. Sugar used to be Brown Sugar before he jumped?

[snagglepuss]

5. If fright can turn hair white why not fur? I'm sure by the 8th floor

puss knew he was in a pickle.

[Earth_First]

7. I'm sure there was some brown involved... n/t

[Booster]

8. Good for Sugar. This reminds me of a similar story actress Lee Grant told. Her cat fell

About the same distance from her apt and she said when she raced down she thought she would be picking up a dead kitty, but when she got to her cat he was sitting with his front paws tucked under and looked like he was saying "I don't want to talk about it; it never happened". Glad Sugar is ok. Cats are amazing.

[kestrel91316]

9. They need more than "workers from the Animal Rescue League" to examine that cat.

They need an ACTUAL VETERINARIAN, and they need radiographs, if not MRI or CT scans. Probably has a ruptured bladder or ruptured diaphragm.

[Orrex]

11. If the cat had been named HFCS, it would almost certainly have died

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

12. It took me a minute. But I see what you did there.

[lastlib]

13. Once a stray cat climbed a utility pole with an electrical transformer near my house--

It sat on the transformer for 30 minutes meowing while I tried to call our worthless fire department to come out and rescue it. Then it moved wrong and touched a wire; I heard a *zzzzzzzzt* sound, saw some sparks, then saw the cat fall about 30 feet. It didn't move, and I assumed it was dead. I went back in the house, but was amazed twenty minutes later to hear it meowing again outside my garage! It had burns on its feet, and a local vet treated those, but couldn't find any other injuries! We kept it for about a week and observed no other ill effects before we took it to a good local shelter. A really nice, friendly, well-mannered cat--I wish I could've kept it....

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

14. What you didn't know is that the cat developed super powers from the accident and

now fights crime.

[Orrex]

15. It calls itself the Cat Ion

[lastlib]

17. That's cool! (It WAS a black cat, too!)

[niyad]

16. I watched a segment on how cats fall--truly amazing

[hifiguy]

18. Fairly low mass (compared to a person or big dog)

and terminal velocity, the ability to spread their legs out like a flying squirrel to maximize surface area, and feline flexibility combine to allow cats to survive some amazing things.