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Caaros t1_j6d9oe4 wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in 9 lives by PewPewAnimeGirl

Meanwhile my cat sounds like she has the air knocked out of her half the time she leaps off anything so much as two or three feet tall.

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Melodic_Duck1406 t1_j6dpsgs wrote

I can't remember the numbers, but basically there is a danger zone for cats, if they fall from a small height, they use their landing prowess and survive, if they fall from a large height, they can sort of glide in a similar way to flying squirrels but nowhere near as affective, look at the way this cat spreads its legs as it falls.

But that only works above a certain height, where there is enough time for the cat to reduce its speed. Between these two zones, too high for landing to absorb the impact but too low to slow the descent, we most unfortunately get a squished, or very injured cat.

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fataldarkness t1_j6duyno wrote

That is unfortunately (likely) a myth. Cats often do die from significant falls, it's just that no one brings an already dead cat to the vet so it doesn't get reported. It's a textbook case of survivorship bias.

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Advocate_Diplomacy t1_j6e2e78 wrote

Being too low to slow a descent doesn’t seem like a logical concept unless we’re talking about deploying parachutes. If a cat is capable of slowing down it’s fall, it doesn’t need to exceed the speed it can slow itself to. How could such technique slow you down from an unacceptable speed, but not prevent you from reaching that speed? It doesn’t make sense.

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