Cats and windows ...a tragic tale

A friend's cat died on New Year's day and she is devasted by the loss. She lives on the 5th floor of an apartment building in NYC and had one of the windows in the kitchen open about 7 to 8 inches. It seems that the cat went out the window early in the moring and fell to the roof below. We are all still trying to make sense of this untimely death of a much beloved cat.

:cry:

I have since heard that this is not uncommon in the City. I'm a dog person but this cat was quite endearing and beautiful; also very active and curious. My heart goes out to her and we are all still trying to make sense of this. In hindsight, clearly the window was open too wide (we aren't sure who opened the window since repairmen were in the apartment a day earlier and a couple of party attendees) but I don't know much about cat behavior.

Can anyone shed any light on how this happens and just how paranoid should we be about this happening again?

Why not? I mean, even though the person is up 5 floors, screens to try and keep bugs out in summer are almost mandatory aren't they?

someone moved it and there is some unresolved anger about that as you may imagine.

As a result I cannot open the windows even when it is sweltering; I have to use the a/c instead. But we live on the first floor so it's just a nuisance. I am not sure what he would do if we were up higher.

One of my cats fell out of a 5-story window when he got excited over a pigeon. Happily, he survived, but had to have expensive surgery to fix his hip.

I'm so sorry about your friend's cat. :(

I would recommend installing screens, or putting locks on the windows so that they can't be raised high enough for a cat to get through.

If you're not sure what I mean, there are some examples on this page (for both sash-type and side-sliding windows): http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/rm_safety_locks/article/0,1797,HGTV_3793_1385140,00.html