THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 16, 1994 TAG: 9410160040
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By PATRICK K. LACKEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
Imogene Irene recently fell nine floors to the ground and lived to meow about it.
As each of the nine stories blurred by, another life surely flashed before her eyes.
Imogene resides in a small ninth-floor apartment at Lafayette Towers, near the Lafayette River, with her littermate, Jeanette Elaine, and Susan Warner, 35, a letter-sorting machine operator in the downtown Post Office.
``People at work,'' Warner said, ``have been saying I threw the cat off the balcony because I was a disgruntled postal employee.''
That would never happen. Warner is single. Her father lives in Michigan, her sister in Arizona. Her mother is deceased. The two cats - 4 1/2-year-old calico-tabby mixes - are her family in Hampton Roads.
The cat apparently fell from the apartment balcony sometime between 2:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 26, while Warner slept with the balcony door open.
When Warner got up that day, Imogene was gone and Jeanette, normally quiet, was meowing some message. Both the chain and dead-bolt locks were secured. The door couldn't have been opened from the outside. Besides, the cats were afraid of the hall.
Warner searched her apartment, then the adjoining apartment, which shares the balcony. No Imogene.
``I started to cry,'' she said, ``because I knew what was next.''
She rushed downstairs and through the front door. Looking down to the right, she saw Imogene, lying motionless with her head pushed into the corner where the front porch connected with the wall.
``As I was standing out there,'' Warner said, ``I started screaming my head off.''
Assuming Imogene was dead, Warner sent one of the property managers to get a box.
When Warner touched Imogene, the cat stood up. Warner said she exclaimed, ``Oh, my God, you are alive.''
Warner took the cat to her veterinarian, Constance Pozniak, at Boulevard Veterinary Hospital in Norfolk.
Dr. Pozniak said she X-rayed the cat ``from the tip of the tail to the tip of the nose,'' but found nothing wrong, though it was clear from Imogene's behavior she had suffered some trauma.
Her ribs and teeth were uncracked. No internal organs were displayed. She didn't even have bruised lungs, the vet told Warner.
One rear toenail was torn and bleeding.
Pozniak is convinced the cat fell nine stories and was very lucky. Falling cats, she said, extend their arms and legs, so the fold of skin gives them a parachute effect.
In one study of falling cats, a New York University physicist found they reach a speed of 60 mph after five stories. From then on, the physicist said, they fall no faster.
Five years ago, several veterinarians at the Animal Medical Center in Manhattan published a scientific paper that concluded the worst injuries occur on falls from five to nine stories. Apparently cats in that range are falling 60 mph and do not have time to assume a position to cushion their landing.
If Imogene had fallen from a few floors lower, she might have been a goner.
New York City cats frequently fall out of high-rise apartments, partly because so many high apartments exist and residents frequently leave unscreened windows open.
In one New York study of 132 cats that had fallen from two to 32 stories, four cats took the fall twice.
Of the 132 cats, 17 were euthanized because their owners could not afford treatment. Of the remaining 115 cats, three were dead on arrival and eight died within 24 hours. Ninety percent of those 115 cats survived.
The technical name for the falling-cat phenomenon is Cat High-rise Syndrome.
Last month a New York cat fell 46 stories and landed on a planter, virtually unscathed, according to a New York Times article.
Imogene might have fallen on a tree with a limber branch four stories up or onto 4-foot-high bushes around the building. Warner, however, was unable to find any broken branches or twigs under her balcony.
Imogene might simply be a talented faller, though she shouldn't push her luck.
Warner surmises that her neighbor's new tomcat might have lunged at the balcony window from inside while Imogene sat on the sill outside, frightening Imogene into running or slipping off the balcony edge.
For now, the balcony is off-limits to Imogene and Jeanette, which is a shame, because the cats enjoyed watching humans putting boats into and out of the water at nearby Haven Creek Boat Ramp.
Warner plans to place chicken wire around the balcony soon, so the cats can again go outdoors. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
PAUL AIKEN/Staff
Imogene Irene, who apparently fell nine floors and lived, is shown
with her owner Susan Warner. Imogene broke a nail, but was otherwise
uninjured.
by CNB