Not if I can help it! Seriously, 20/20 is running a story right now on Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity. Back in HS, a friend of mine and myself actually tried this stunt and dropped a stray cat off a small bridge and actually the cat landed on it's feet. Believe it or not, the cat actually came back to us. All right, it was stupid and mean at the time, but I was in HS. We were trying to prove a thesis (OK, not really...but we were curious). Any cats you know (besides Mobley) that don't always land on their feet? Some of you have got to have some unique stories or tests of you own...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_righting_reflex Unusually flexible backbone and no collar bone contributes. Have been known to fall 7 stories and uninjured. Though most times they do fall on their feet, they still break bones even though they reduce speed by spreading out body.
Turn a cat upside down. One inch above the floor. Drop it. and Spoiler Cat does not land on its feet.
Essentially the process of them landing on their feet requires them to whip their tail to induce rotation/momentum which rights the body. I have dropped several of my cats onto my bed from as high up as the ceiling. Essentially if they are more than about 2 feet up they will land on their feet. Less than that and they won't be able to whip the tail around and they land squarely. The following video which I ripped of from National Geographic shows some cool slo-mo video of the process happening (it starts with an unavoidable 10 second ad after this you have to hit play once more, but IMO is worth the trouble): <EMBED src="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/video/asx/060928-cats-land-video.asx" width=400 height=300 autostart=false loop=false volume=100> I do have a cat whose tail was broken several times before I found her and it healed up wrong. Essentially she has a mace for a tail - it sticks out about two or three inches and then basically is all squished up into a ball. Because it doesn't extend out from the body, she has a more difficult time than my other cats but if I give her an extra foot or two she will land on her feet as well. I'm thinking that cats that don't have tails, like the Manx breed, probably have a much worse rate of landing on their feet.
Yeah - I commented to my wife about the show. The first segment was about getting good abs. The big secret: diet and exercise. WOW!!! who'd have thought? That segment was followed up with "Will this cat land on its feet? We'll find out when we return." ...How does this crap get on television? I mean, really. Can TV programming get any crappier?
Yeah, I did that as a kid. The body can only twist around so fast. I never dropped one a long distance, though.
It depends on the height they fall from, if it is to high they are not able to maintain their position, and they could flip over again. the 7 story building is to high for a cat to always land on their feet, but ofcourse their could be exepctions.
I saw my cousin make a cat not land on it's feet. He held the cat by it's front paws, and spun the cat as he let go. The cat did 5-6 head over ass revolutions before landing on it's head/shoulders. I guess the momentum of spinning overpowered the cat's ability to contort its body.
I'll try to find the story about the guys who tested this theory by throwing a cat out of an airplane... seriously.
Another fun thing to do......and it won't hurt the cat. Is get a kitty, and put a coozy around it's midsection and watch it try to walk. Their balance is all messed up because of the coozy..... just get one of the cloth ones with velcro...... DD
If you dropped Mobley, will it land on Francis? I tried dropping cats when I was younger, but found it much more amusing if you tape its paws.
I have a good story for all of you cat droppers out there. When I was in the 7th grade in Manvel TX I spotted some kids from my junior high at the top of an oil reservoir thowing kittens off the top. One of them, they actually lit on fire with lighter fluid first. It was on my grandfathers property. Gramps loaded up his shotgun with rock salt. The first shot went off and the three satanic gimps started crying like girls. Then, after about twenty minutes, they yelled they were coming down. Gramps hit the first two about two thirds down the ladder and they fell screaming. The other started climbing back up. So we went back home and let him sit up there for a while. They never did see gramps and I.
