That they have 7 lives, that they are tightrope walkers, that they always land on their feet...Several myths that go to pieces in a second, at the very instant when your cat loses their balance, falls from high up and, like a parachutist, flies several metres before meeting the ground.
This is a common cause of veterinary care: trauma in cats due to the so-called feline high-rise syndrome.
It is true that they have an instinctive ability to fall on their four paws whatever their position before falling; this happens because their body weight is distributed symmetrically and harmoniously so that their centre of gravity is the same as the geometric centre of their body.This allows them to restore their physiological position whilst falling… but they don’t always manage it.They can fail.
It is called ‘feline high-rise syndrome’ when a cat suffers injuries due to having fallen into a void from a balcony or a window.It doesn’t happen because they jump, but rather because they slip or something makes them lose their footing (a gust of wind, something that frightens them, a lapse in their concentration…).When a cat falls into a void and cannot correct their posture in the air, the height is too much or they meet objects like washing lines or protrusions that they hit, they can suffer injuries of varying severity.
