One day during our young and poor days, our cat was being quite a pest. Having had enough, we put him out on our 3rd story “rug porch”. He wanted to be with us, and finally decided to jump from the railing of the porch to the window next to the porch where we were sitting. What followed was an actual cartoon, that we both saw in slow motion.
The cat jumped, and grabbed the sash of the window to hang on to. Because this was a funky old house, the sash immediately dropped off the window. The cat, frozen in time and space, opened his mouth and eyes wide in horror, then, he slooooowly stretched out, his body getting longer and thinner, until he snapped down, gone.
Mr G and I both fell on the floor, literally, roaring with laughter. We just knew the cat was dead, because it was 3 stories up and there were garbage cans below, but it was the funniest thing we had ever seen.
So, Mr G made the climb down the three stories to retrieve the body, and found our guy, wandering around, looking up, wondering how to get back up there. He was fine.
You just reminded me of something. When my husband was at Texas A&M we lived in an upstairs apartment. Our cat jumped for the window sill. The window was open, no screen, the cat went down. I raced down the stairs, not knowing what I would find.
The cat landed on all fours, like cats do but he was completely shocked. Eyes wide open, stiff as a board and after I carried him up stairs, he hid under the bed until the next day.