High Rise Syndrome (HRS)

Waiting for a call to go out & calve a cow...unfortunately at the moment they can't find the cow as she has done a Houdini from the yard, so I thought I'd write about "High Rise Syndrome" in cats.

My boss told me this one.

In the USA many people living in high rise apartments own cats, and these cats occasionally fall off the balcony when sunning themselves or falling asleep or just plain trying to commit suicide. Apparently this is such a common occurrence in the city that there are actually statistics to predict the chances of survival after a fall. According to these stats, cats that fall from the first to third storey have a high chance of survival (though with one less life left over); those that fall from 3-10 storeys have almost no chance of survival; but amazingly enough, those that fall from higher than ten storeys will have some chance of survival! The theory is that up to the tenth storey the cat still attempts to land on its feet, resulting in catastrophic injury as it holds its legs out rigidly pointing to the ground. But any higher than ten storeys and the cat panics and splays all legs out in terror, thus slowing its fall much like a skydiver does, ala "Terminal Velocity".

True story? You'll have to decide for yourself!