100ft plunge uses up eight of Shale's nine lives

Campbell Wild and Shale

Four-year-old Shale, who often stretches out her two front legs while being held "as if to fly like superman", fell ten storeys from a terrace on the top floor of the Granton tower block where she lives with owners Campbell and Louise Wild.

She had to undergo three operations during a month-long stay at Edinburgh's Oak Tree Veterinary Centre after suffering a split palate, damage to her two front legs and a chipped tooth. She is thought to be the first animal in the UK to have a submucosal heterograft carried out on the palate.

Mr Wild, 34, who also has another cat, Sable, said: "Shale was in such a poor way, I just didn't think there was any way she would pull through.The vet was concerned that she might have brain damage or might not be able to see or walk, but she has made a full recovery.

"He was planning to do an operation to fuse the joints in her legs together because it was thought she wouldn't have the strength to stand up without doing that, but after a month or so she started walking again."

Mr Wild, a software developer, was at work when he received a call from the Oak Tree Veterinary Centre to say Shale, who was identified via a microchip, had been injured. She had been picked up by the Scottish SPCA after neighbour Dave Raspin spotted her lying in a pool of blood.

Shale had climbed on to the wall of the terrace, which she accessed via a special cat flap. She is thought to have hit her head on the way down and landed on her front paws, which Mr Wild said were "bent backwards".

Alistair Marks, principal veterinary surgeon at Oak Tree Veterinary Centre in Queensferry Road, said he had never before witnessed such a badly damaged palate. He said: "Shale was unconscious and was basically dying in front of us. Her chances of survival were poor.

"The roof of the mouth was split in half and the two halves were unstable. The two halves of the face were floating around."

The submucosal heterograft involved using a surgical product made from the intestine of a pig to join Shale's mouth and nose back together.

"It's difficult to know whether this procedure has been carried out on an animal's palate before, but it's not been written up by anybody if it has," said Mr Marks.

Mr Wild had taken out Petplan insurance and so didn't have to fork out 3000 in vet bills. It has taken Shale around a year to fully recover from the fall in June 2009.

Mr Wild, who has now installed chicken wire on the wall, added: "Now Shale's fully recovered, you would never think anything had ever happened. She was very lucky."