Cats risk their lives on window ledges

The problem of cats falling out of windows is a seasonal one, timed to the first nice days of spring and, later, to the attempt to get any fresh air in a home on a hot summer day.

Cats can't understand the risks of falls. While the problem would seem to be one for big-city cats only, that's not really the case. In fact, cats are more likely to survive falls from higher stories and be killed from falls as low as two stories. The reason is what veterinarians call "high-rise syndrome," with the worst falls in terms of feline fatalities coming from the second to the sixth stories of buildings.

Severe injuries are common in falls from higher stories, but these cats often survive. Cats falling from lower floors, without time to get relaxed into a proper landing position, are at greatest risk of death.

That means a cat can be killed falling from the window of a two-story home, or from the balcony of a third-story apartment. In other words, "high- rise syndrome" is as much a problem in the suburbs as in the city.

Many cat lovers assume their pets would be smart enough to be careful when up high enough for injuries, but it's just not in an animal's ability to make that kind of judgment call. Cats are comfortable in high places, and they cannot understand the difference in risk between a one-story fall and a six-story fall.

Screens can help a great deal, but since they're designed to keep bugs out, not cats in, they're not foolproof. The only sure way to protect a cat from falling out the window is to keep the window closed.