It seems like a tall tale a cat can always land on its feet, but an incident from Chicago proved it may be more true than many people thought.
A video circulating the internet shows a cat jumping out of a burning apartment building and landing on the ground completely and totally fine. Fire department personnel were filming the exterior of the apartment building when a black cat appeared through the smoke at a broken window.
The cat jumped from the 5th floor of the building—about 75 feet in the air—missed a wall and landed on a strip of grass on all four paws. The feline bounced once then hurried away.
You can see footage here:
Nine lives for a cat that jumped from fire at 65th and Lowe. Cat hit grass bounced and walked away!pic.twitter.com/LRBsjMta2Z— Chicago Fire Media (@Chicago Fire Media) 1620937647
The moment happened so quickly and was so unbelievable some people had trouble grasping what occurred.
Something fell right before the cat. I thought it was the shadow.pic.twitter.com/knEv9NdRR8— Sarah Lauch (@Sarah Lauch) 1620939945
thought this was the cat at first, dropping from orbit or something idkpic.twitter.com/tfAo6XP9c6— Getter Donkus (@Getter Donkus) 1620939743
The form, the technique, the landing! It's a 10 for me.pic.twitter.com/L1VQYjEiJS— Mrs Kriss...M-F loading \ud83c\uddef\ud83c\uddf2\u2650 (@Mrs Kriss...M-F loading \ud83c\uddef\ud83c\uddf2\u2650) 1620941250
Others took the cat as inspiration for how they were going to make it through life.
That's how fast I'm trying to bounce back in life— Xx_\u00a5ANI_xX\u2728\ud83c\udf52 (@Xx_\u00a5ANI_xX\u2728\ud83c\udf52) 1621014824
Agreed. I\u2019d have fainted seeing my cat jump. I hope it\u2019s with its family and they\u2019re all safe.— Jackie*\ud83e\udd8b (@Jackie*\ud83e\udd8b) 1620977204
Saw a documentary on this once on how cats are able to do this. It broke every movement down with super high speed cameras and how cats stretch the physics behind it all. It was awesome— Derek (@Derek) 1620939618
Cats are true badasses. I hope s/he was checked and is okay. My cat fell off the 4th floor and I found her in a bush with a broken leg the next day after searching all over for her.— upteenthghost (@upteenthghost) 1620982049
OMG!! That's crazy\n\nI hope he's 100% ok— afrobella (@afrobella) 1620938140
The cat reportedly went under Larry Langford's car "and hid until she felt better after a couple of minutes and came out and tried to scale the wall to get back in."
Langford is a spokesperson for the Chicago fire department that responded to the call.
What incredible accuracy in clearing that wall and hitting the narrow grassy area!\n\nFrom @googlemaps Street View:pic.twitter.com/uLNIWpHoSW— Peter Nosko \ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddea-\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@Peter Nosko \ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddea-\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1621011608
There goes my hero...pic.twitter.com/JoqtA334F1— DintMentalFloss (@DintMentalFloss) 1620940709
Is this cat mayor now?— Brett "Unions 2021" Banditelli (@Brett "Unions 2021" Banditelli) 1620958272
I love how no-one in the comments gives a damn whether any people were hurt.\n\n#CatsRock— CrustyHumdinger (@CrustyHumdinger) 1620974141
pic.twitter.com/Bn5VSrbxIc— zooey bechamel (@zooey bechamel) 1620954800
The cat was not injured, nor were any humans.
The fire was contained to one apartment and was successfully extinguished.
For more on the science of falling cats, NatGeo covers it here:
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