Not on purpose, obviously. But it scared the living hell out of both of us.
Emmy had followed me upstairs earlier when I went up to take a shower, and hadn’t come back down - since she usually likes to sit next to me and watch TV at night, he decided to bring her back down when he went upstairs to get something.
We live in an older house, so our stairs are sort of split - there are about five stairs down from the upstairs, a landing, and then another ten stairs or so to the bottom. He got to the landing, took two steps, and then our other cat decided to get underfoot. Oscar went under ElzaHub’s feet, and tripped him.
The next thing I know, I see this tabby cat flying down the stairs, about six feet in the air. She landed on her feet, but rolled a little and ran into the closet door at the bottom of the stairs. ElzaHub didn’t fall, but he nearly went tumbling down the stairs himself. We’re not sure if he lost his grip on her, or if she jumped out of his arms, but I swear to God, seeing her flying through the air was about the scariest thing I’ve ever freakin’ seen. Cats are not meant to fly.
She ran under the dining room table and wouldn’t let me see her, but I finally got her into the office and under the desk where I could look at her. I checked her paws and legs to see if anything seemed to hurt her, and she didn’t act like anything was hurt. She spent the rest of the night watching Fear Factor and Last Comic Standing on the couch, curled up next to me, and she seems to be back to her normal little self. We’re pretty sure it just knocked the wind out of her and scared the crap out of her (not to mention us). She’s come upstairs to bed with me, and just gave me a little F-you meow for daring to scoot her over so I had foot room, so that’s normal.
However, let’s just say she got some extra food and treats tonight for that. :smack: ElzaHub’s been feeling guilty all night.
Get your husband some treats too. It’s scary, when you almost injure yourself trying to avoid squishing a beloved pet. Not to mention accidently propelling innocent bystander pet through the air.
Yeah, he got some extra cuddles and treats last night, too . Of course, I can’t resist giving him a little bit of a hard time - as I was going down the stairs this morning, I called up to him “I’m really sore this morning…you’d think you threw ME down the stairs last night.”
She’s also too dumb to hold a grudge - as sweet as she is, she’s about the dumbest cat that ever walked the earth.
She was her normal self last night when we went to bed and this morning - bugging me while I was brushing my teeth and doing my hair for breakfast - so I think she’s okay and she’s forgotten about her near-death experience last night.
I once saw an 18 year old cat that was sunning on the owner’s fire escape, three stories up. She was watching as the cat streeetched and rolled. . .right off the fire escape. Couldn’t find a thing wrong with the cat. That same day, I saw a Russian Blue that did the same exact thing on a windowsill, but fell into the house. The Russian Blue fell about 3 feet and fractured a tibia.
Back in the '80s (IIRC) there was a published study looking at “high-rise syndrome” in cats. The paper looked at University Veterinary records of falls and reported on the injuries/etc in relation to height fallen. It was a well written paper with interesting data. PETA misunderstood, and thought it was a study in which cats were intentionally dropped from various heights. They went ape shit (as PETA often does). When someone explained that this was a retrospective study (and explained what that meant), the organization sort of said, “Oh. Nevermind then”.
Um, no. Your bias is obvious here. Your cat tried to do away with your hubbie, since he is stealing your affection. He just messed up. Obviously the cat’s got you brainwashed, too, since you are giving it affection.
Heh…if you only knew how scarily true that statement could be;). (This is the cat, who, when ElzaHub and I were first dating, saw us laying on the bed together watching TV, jumped up on the bed in between us, stretched out longways across the bed, forcing us each to opposite sides, and then glared at ElzaHub with a look on his face that said “Touch my mom. I freakin’ dare you.”. )
At age 5, being hyperactive and not knowing any better, I threw a li’l baby kitty down a flight of stairs at Mrs. Ross’s house. Baby kitty was fine, but I got such a talking to and learned that kitties are our friends, not toys, and certainly not for the throwing.
From that day to this, I love the kitty cats. Thank you, Mrs. Ross, for setting me straight.
Maybe not the dumbest. We have two cats. We live out in the country (eastern Colorado) and there are farm cats that occasionally range far beyond their homes in search of mice (we have a bunch of 'em, since our kitties are mostly indoor guys.) So there’s a huge orange tabby who’s been coming around. Our cats pitch a fit until we let them out. The huge orange tabby kicks both of their butts and they clamor to get back inside. Next night, HOT comes around, our guys clamor to get out, get their butts kicked, clamor to get back in …
It’s gone on for almost a week now. I think the mice are all gone around our place. The huge orange tabby just comes around because he enjoys kicking our cats’ butts. I have no idea what our cats get out of it. One of 'em is starting to look pretty frayed around the ears.
I used to have a waterbed. When Merlyn was a much younger cat, (like 3 years old) he would walk the perimeter of the bed. Again and again. Like a damned electric train. And he’d vocalize periodically while he did this. At 2:am.
Yeah, cats are a lot tougher than we give them credit for (not that we have to test it - just sayin’.) When Jim’s cat was a wee one, he ran down the hall to get away from her pesty self, and slammed the door on the bedroom just as she got there. She ran head first, full-speed into the door; when he opened it to see the damage, she was just sitting there, licking her chops and looking a little dazed. She shook it off in about five minutes, and was off and running (full-speed) again.
Now she lies at the top of the basement steps, a black cat in the dark stairwell, and waits for us to come downstairs so she can kill us.
My wife and I were recently invited over to couple’s house (first time, just starting to become friends). We were having drinks on their third floor balcony.
Their 12 year old cat was sitting on the porch railing and I accidentally bumped her and knocked her off. I swear I could hear the Doppler effect on her mournful meow as she fell off.
Cat was fine, but we have not been invited back I was really mortified when I did it, but after confirming the cat was OK, could not stop laughing about it. They didn’t seem to find it so funny.
Unfortunately, not…just one of the hazards of being 8 months pregnant .
elfkin, no, she’s never tried to climb into the fireplace, but she does get lost in her own house. If she goes upstairs without one of us, she gets lost and howls until we come get her. For some reason, the stairs apparently don’t work the same way going down as they do going up:D.
Jim’s cat does that, too - howls for Jim to come to her. He says she knows exactly where he is - she’s just telling him to get his ass over to where she is, being a cat and ruler of the universe and all.
. Of course, I can’t resist giving him a little bit of a hard time - as I was going down the stairs this morning, I called up to him “I’m really sore this morning…you’d think you threw ME down the stairs last night.” 
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