newtonian mechanics - Effect of the tail of the cat in the falling cat problem

To explain why a falling cat can turn by 180 degree without external torque and without violation of the conservation of angular momentum, one usually models the cat as two cylinders as in

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falling_cat_problem

This may explain the turn. However I often heard contrary to this that she can rotate her body simply because she rotates her tail very fast into the opposite direction (and essentially keeps the rest of the body rigid).

So, what effect does the tail have in reality? Is there any detailed model, which takes the tail rotation into account and calculates how large its effect is?