# Air Kittys! How high is too high for my cats to jump?



## Lovemycats (Feb 9, 2004)

Here is a strange probelm.. My husband and I just moved into a new house Monday. Our 2 cats just became brave enough to venture out of the bedroom and explroe their new surroundings. (They have been hiding under our blanket for two days!) Anyways, upstairs, we have a loft that overlooks our living room. The loft has two ledges that last night- our cats discovered! The ledges that look down are probably 20-25 feet high up from the living room floor. THEY ARE SCARING ME TO DEATH! They are teetering along the edge, sometime losing their footing... and one of my cats seriously considered jumping down to the floor below. (She was in her "crouch" position and had her front paws flat on the wall that goes straight down) I screamed out "NOOOO!" and she stopped thankfully... she almost gave her mommy a heart attack! So my question is, if they were to jump the 20-25 feet down to the hard wood floor below, would they land on their feet? Or would they break their neck? I am so scared they are going to hurt themselves while we are gone at work and I will come home to one of them laying there in pain! So can anyone help? Just how far of a fall (or jump) can a cat handle safely?


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## Zalensia (Aug 25, 2003)

urgh, actually i wouldnt be so sure on 25 feet.... :shock: 
If the splip as they land, or jump they coud seriously injure themselves, and to be honest id have thought a succesful jump wouldnt be all that good for the body.


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## ForJazz (Dec 30, 2003)

It is very hard on their bodies to jump that far -- and all cats are different. Some cat's might come down with nothing more than a head shake, others might come down with strained tendons or twisted joints or something like that. I would use something like sticky paws or bitter apple to deter them from those ledges.


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## Annissa (Dec 9, 2003)

I wouldn't be comfortable letting my cats jump from that far. I'd take ForJazz's advice on this one. I once had a cat who would regularly jump from the roof of my house to the ground. He did it by running (kind of) down the wall of the house. I guess the friction of his feet touching the siding helped break his fall.


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## pazavatkay (Feb 17, 2004)

I did worry about this too when my cat jumped off the balcony and down to about 15 feet give or take. It took her a litte time before she jumped. I guess she was judging the distance or something before she went down. I was relieved when she made it without any problems. Her front two feet landed first in a slope direction. For some reason cats have great balance. I'm not totally sure but I don't think a cat would jump unless they thought they could make it.


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## Zalensia (Aug 25, 2003)

My cats regularly go on the house roof aswell- i live in a bungalow and the climb up the wall onto the roof. I think ive got some pictures somehwere, its quite a site really when you walk down the path and you see 5 cats sat on a roof lol.
anyway back to the point-
i asked my partner about this, he was saying altho cats have fantastic balance, and nearly always land on their feet, and land with their front feet first, the danger is that if the jump is too high, and land hard, or wrong that their head hits the floor, well their chin, purely due to the inpact hit the flooor, which can result in breaking their jaw.


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