https://www.thedodo.com/daily-dodo/cat-jumps-from-burning-apartment-building
Cat Shocks Everyone By Making A Daring Leap From Burning Building
He saved himself ❤️️
When firefighters responded to a call at a Chicago apartment building, they had no idea that they were about to witness a death-defying feat of feline agility.
After his owner evacuated the burning apartment, a cat named Hennessy decided the best way to get out ... was down.
“When the firefighters got to the floor and forced their way into
the apartment, the cat was sitting on the other side of the door but would not
come out,” Larry Langford, director of media affairs for the Chicago Fire
Department, told The Dodo. “As they went into the apartment, the cat went
deeper into the apartment and eventually decided, after they knocked the
windows out to ventilate, to get on the window ledge.”
Langford was on-site taking video of the fire when he spotted
Hennessy peering out the fifth-story window. He started getting nervous
but assumed Hennessy would go back inside.
He was
wrong.
Cats are expert climbers and fearless when it
comes to heights. Their bodies are designed to survive falls and they
instinctively know which way is down. This gives them the ability to align
their bodies midair so they always land on their feet.
“They
have a relatively large surface area in proportion to their weight, thus
reducing the force at which they hit the pavement,” the BBC reports. “Cats reach terminal velocity, the speed at which the downward
tug of gravity is matched by the upward push of wind resistance, at a slow
speed compared to large animals like humans and horses.”
Hennessy appeared to consider the jump before he leaped from the
window of the burning building. “He put his paws out like he was testing
— he actually looked like he was trying to calculate [the fall] and then
he just took off,” Langford said. “It was surprising.”
In
the air, the clever cat spread out his legs, creating a parachute effect and
increasing drag resistance. To Langford “he looked more like a flying squirrel
than a cat.”
TWITTER/CFDMEDIA
As a crowd of onlookers gasped, Hennessy narrowly missed a retaining wall and landed safely on the grass with a slight bounce. He then trotted off around to the corner of the building as if nothing had happened. Langford was surprised to see that the cat wasn't limping and was perfectly OK.
Turns
out, Hennessy didn’t need anyone to save him that day. No matter what happens,
the brave cat always lands on his feet.
