Cat miraculously survives 12-floor high rise balcony fall

A Brisbane feline has proved the old adage that cats have nine lives after surviving a fall from a 12-storey apartment balcony that ended in a leg amputation.

Duchess fell from the 12th storey apartment and was later found stuck on the first floor roof. Picture: Supplied.

A pet cat has miraculously survived a 12-storey fall from an apartment balcony, proving some lucky felines may have nine lives to spare after all.

Holland Park resident Andres Tovar returned home several weeks ago to find his three-year-old cat Duchess missing from his apartment on the 12th floor.

“She would always lie down on the dining table outside taking in the sun every morning, we didn’t see anything wrong about that,” Mr Tovar said.

“But then one day I couldn’t find her in the apartment … I didn’t know how or why but she just jumped.”

Mr Tovar has owned Duchess for three years and said she loved to sunbathe outside. Picture: Supplied

Mr Tovar was moving from the apartment that week and was forced to hang posters in the building.

“After I moved out, I started going back every night to look for her, because they said that at night they (cats) are more active. I was looking for her with food, with noise, calling her – I did that for almost three weeks.”

Not only had Duchess mysteriously fallen from the balcony, but she also survived several weeks without proper food and water.

After three weeks Duchess was spotted by another resident peeking her head off the first floor roof. Picture: Supplied

She was found by an another tenant in the building, who sent a photo of Duchess on the roof of the first floor to her worried owner.

“She was very skinny, because she was there the whole time so I don’t know what she was eating or drinking, but she was very dehydrated,” he said.

It was discovered at the vet that Duchess had a fracture in one of her legs that had begun healing, but connecting to the wrong place.

They encouraged Mr Tovar to have her leg amputated as reconstructive surgery was not only risky, but also extremely expensive at $7000.

Duchess had her leg amputated last week and is now recovering. Picture: Supplied

“She was in a lot of pain … crying a lot the last week before we decided to go with the amputation.”

Mr Tovar reached out to the community on GoFundMe to help raise funds for the surgery.

“She’s doing okay now and walking around getting used to three legs. She is very lucky to be alive and I am happy the leg was the only problem,” he said.