Cats can fall incredible distances and live. I remember reading an article a few years ago that did a statistical analysis of cats that had fallen from high places. At relatively low heights, like a one-story roof, the cat almost always is uninjured and survives. The cat stretches downward with its feet and legs and arches its back, and its body is like a spring that absorbs the shock.
At higher and higher heights, the cat is more likely to be injured or killed in the fall, up to its maximum mortality, which is the hieght when the cat will reach terminal velocity for that spring-like posture. After that, for higher falls, something weird happens, and the rate of injuries and death start dropping again. That's because the cat abandons the spring-like posture and instead spreads out in a flying squirrel posture.
Seriously!
That slows the cat down. Terminal velocity for the flying squirrel posture is lower than the spring posture so the cat doesn't hit the ground as hard. Up above a certain height, the rate of deaths and injuries levels off, so the likelihood of surviving say a 100-story fall is the same as 200 stories or 1,000 stories, and it's actually better than the maximum mortality that happens at a lower height. Cats have fallen from more than 100 stories and lived to tell the "tail".
If a cat falls from 100 stories, and you are on the 50th floor, this what it sounds like:
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW... Thump!
