They say cats have nine lives and if we tell you the story of Gizmo, a pretty 4-and-a-half-year-old kitty living in a downtown Manhattan penthouse, you might be hard pressed to not believe the myth. According to the New York Daily News , Gizmo is lucky to be alive after he fell nine stories from the ledge of a penthouse and landed on a skylight on the third floor.
Gizmo’s owner is an individual named Samuel Jacobs, better known as Sam Kosnani, who later exclaimed to the Daily News Thursday:
“I can’t believe he’s alive!”
Jacobs, who happens to be a DJ, said that the miraculous fall happened sometime on Tuesday after the Egyptian Mau — known for their spotted, leopard like skin — scaled a railing on Jacob’s terrace and slipped. The penthouse is situated on E. 32nd St. near Lexington Ave. The cat landed on the third floor, on to a glass skylight, cracking it.
The incident happened when Jacobs was away for a doctor’s appointment. It was only after he returned home at around 11 am in the morning that he figured that his cat was missing. The cat hadn’t eaten his food and water and was nowhere to be seen. Wondering where the cat could have gone from the closed apartment, he began frantically searching for Gizmo.
“I became frantic. I looked everywhere for him. I tore the apartment apart looking for the cat,” he said.
It was then that he decided to go look at the terrace. Finding nothing there, he simply glanced down and could not believe his eyes. Nine stories below his penthouse, he saw the cat sitting in a corner — wedged between a wall and a skylight.
“He was sitting in a corner. I couldn’t tell if he was alive,” Jacobs said. “I start yelling, ‘No! No! No!’ I start yelling, ‘Gizmo! Gizmo!’ I’m thinking, ‘This cat is dead.’”
Wasting no time, he rushed to the lobby and alerted a porter who helped him open the door of a neighbor who allowed him to go through his apartment to get to the landing area where the cat was stuck. The cat, he said, was stuck between a skylight and a wall, and Jacobs had to climb a few ladders to reach his beloved pet. He finally did, and was still worried that the cat would be seriously injured or perhaps even dead. However, as soon as he reached closer, he heaved a sigh of relief after the cat started crying and yelling.
“I just looked at him and he had this look of relief. He was crying and yelling. He was so freaked out.”
After rescuing the stuck cat, he quickly rushed the animal to a vet, fearing that the animal would have sustained serious internal injuries following the nine story fall. The doctors had a thorough look at the cat and were surprised to find that apart from a broken tooth and a few bruises, the cat was fine and dandy.
Don’t you think Gizmo is perhaps the luckiest cat alive today? Or are there other contenders to the throne, like this one which survived an accident, stoning, and a gunshot would !
[Images Via Alec Tabak For New York Daily News ]
