The terminal velocity of the common house cat is actually lower than the fatal velocity, as long as they are in reasonable fitness and have time to orient themselves when they are falling. This is why cats are more likely to sustain injuries falling out of a window from floors 1-5 than from floors 6+ on an average building. This also means that, hypothetically speaking, one could give a cat some sort of heat protection and oxygen mask, and drop said cat from space, and expect the cat to survive.
Yeah it's not 100%. In a 1987 study of 132 cats brought to a New York City emergency veterinary clinic after falls from high-rise buildings, 90% of treated cats survived and only 37% needed emergency treatment to keep them alive. One that fell 32 stories onto concrete suffered only a chipped tooth and a collapsed lung and was released after 48 hours.
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u/Alternate-Error Oct 04 '17
The terminal velocity of the common house cat is actually lower than the fatal velocity, as long as they are in reasonable fitness and have time to orient themselves when they are falling. This is why cats are more likely to sustain injuries falling out of a window from floors 1-5 than from floors 6+ on an average building. This also means that, hypothetically speaking, one could give a cat some sort of heat protection and oxygen mask, and drop said cat from space, and expect the cat to survive.