Luck is on
black cat’s side
after fall

Nori the cat survives
with a few injuries
from a 19-story drop

COURTESY OF KALEI SATO Nori, a 1 1/2-year-old cat, survived a 19-story fall from a 23rd-floor apartment balcony last weekend.

If cats have nine lives, subtract one for a jet-black kitty that survived a 19-story fall this weekend from a downtown high-rise's balcony.

Nori, just 10 pounds, suffered a collapsed lung, fractured hip and pelvis and some scratches in the fall.

It was the 1 1/2-year-old's cat's first venture outside, owner Kalei Sato said, and it sure was a wild one.

Sato said that sometime Saturday, while she and her boyfriend were at a football game, the cat plummeted from Sato's 23rd-floor apartment balcony at the Admiral Thomas on Victoria Street.

The cat landed on some bushes on the third-floor pool area.

Sato returned home about 11:30 p.m. and went searching around the apartment for the cat. When she could not find Nori, she went downstairs and looked in the pool area.

"We went out there with flashlights. There was a hole in the bushes (where the cat fell)," Sato said. "She was shaken and really scared, but she was really coherent."

Sato said Nori must have gotten onto the balcony when her boyfriend opened the door earlier in the day.

"He was talking on the phone and distracted," she said, adding he likely closed it without knowing the cat was still outside.

Nori came home from the veterinarian Sunday and is able to walk. Sato said Nori has stayed clear of the balcony doors but does occasionally look out the window at the world outside.