BANGKOK — A tomcat in Bangkok, Thailand, survived a six-storey fall with no severe injuries despite making a big hole on a car windscreen.
The owner of the car, who goes by Apiwat Toyothaka on Facebook, shared on Saturday (May 27) that he was informed about the incident by his condominium's management at 7am.
The digital creator, who also owns a cat, said he could not get angry when he saw the frightened cat, which was hiding under his car after jumping out of the big hole of his broken windscreen.
The cat, Shifu, is reportedly named after Master Shifu in the Kung Fu Panda films, according to The Nation.
Closed-circuit camera footage shows the 8.5kg feline hanging briefly from the balcony on the sixth floor before falling off. It briefly hits the third-floor balcony before crashing onto the rear windscreen of Mr Apiwat's car.
Mr Apiwat said X-rays performed on Shifu revealed no broken bones, and it lost only two claws.
He also said on Monday that Shifu was eating and excreting well after the incident.
He was also able to claim for damages to his car from the insurance firm.
Mr Thanakorn Jongjaemfah, the manager of the condo located in Soi Sathupradit 49, said the incident shows why residents are banned from raising pets, reported The Nation.
He added that Shifu's owner was fined 1,000 baht (S$39), and has promised to move her cat to a relative's home.
In 2021, a cat in Wenzhou, China, fell off a residential building while trying to steal meat on a balcony. It landed on a parked car and shattered the front windscreen before scurrying away.
Another cat in Staten Island, New York, also survived after falling off a balcony and damaged a car's front windscreen in 2012.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esXSwuMwnlc[/embed]
Also in 2012, a cat in Boston fell from a 19-storey window and survived with a bruised chest.
Scientists have offered various explanations as to why cats are able to survive high falls.
For one thing, they have a relatively large surface area in proportion to their weight, which reduces the impact at which they hit the ground.
Cats can also spread their legs out to create a parachute effect, and their muscular legs can act as shock absorber.
"They splay out their legs, which is going to expand their surface area of the body, and that increases the drag resistance," Dr Andrew Biewener, a professor of organismal and evolutionary biology at Harvard University, was quoted as saying in a BBC report.
In Singapore, however, several cats have met less fortunate ends after they were flung from high-rise buildings.
On May 22, a Facebook post by Ms Jasmine Tan on the Hougang Community Cats page called for witnesses and video footage after a community cat was suspected to be thrown from height at Block 614 Hougang Avenue 8. The cat, named Tuxy by residents, did not survive.
In December 2022, a boy allegedly killed a cat called Panther by throwing it off the 22nd storey of a HDB block, sparking outrage from residents.
Animal advocates told The Straits Times that reports of such incidents have been on the rise, with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) noting a spike in cat abuse cases in 2023 so far.
In the light of the recent spate of animal cruelty cases, SPCA announced on May 27 that it is expanding its youth education programme.
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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.