Late night kitty rescue!!

It is 1:15 a.m. and I just got back from an unusual rescue call.  I had just gotten home from feeding all of my feral cats and finally thinking of slowing down for the day, when a call came in from a friend of mine named Vicky Bryant.  Vicky was upset and told me that at one of her feral colonies, where she was feeding tonight, a little cat was running around with a jar stuck on her head!  Vicky had been trying to catch her for HOURS and, being totally upset and exhausted, she called me for help.

I grabbed my net, some Vaseline, my gloves, tuna and a flashlight and off I went to feral colony about an hour away from my house!  I muttled something to my husband, who knew that I had just gotten home, saying that I had to go save a cat with a jar on his head!  My husband nodded and did not look at all surprised.  It was 11:00 p.m. and I told him the general vicinity of where I was going so that if I did not show up by morning, he would know where to send the police.  I made him repeat it after me just to make sure he was listening.

When Vicky and I arrived at the scene, we saw nothing.  We were shining our flashlights all around the area and saw several kitties running around and lots of food that Vicky had left out for them.  After about 20 minutes, sure enough, out from underneath a trailer came a little tabby kitty (looked to be a very young adult) with a jar stuck on her head!  It was obvious that she was really hungry, but was just running around sporadically and bumping her head on everything.  She would go in the direction of Vicky’s familiar and sweet calling voice, and of course the smell of the fresh canned food (I think?  Not really sure she could smell?).  She looked pitiful and all we could see with the flashlight was a VERY smushed face jammed into this jar.  I could have just cried!  It was AWFUL!

It was difficult to know what to do.  Even with the jar on her head, she was pretty quick to run around.  She kept going underneath this abandoned trailer as I am sure she was feeling defenseless.  She would run out, but after beating her head on several things (trees, junk in the area, etc.) she would quickly retreat back underneath the trailer before I could do anything!  We were so frustrated and wanted to help her so badly!

Finally, I got down on the ground and worked my net up underneath the trailer.  I waited until she got within my range of about 6-8 feet and finally managed to get my net over her (in a hurry) underneath the trailer!  I pulled her out and she was thrashing all over the place!  Vicky quickly covered the frightened kitty with a towel while she was still in the net, and she calmed down.   HOORAY!  GOT HER!

We carried her over to the soft green grass to work on her.  The jar was REALLY stuck!  Luckily it was not a glass jar, but a plastic jar looking something like a peanut butter jar.  The jar was too thick to cut off with scissors and I was trying to pull it off of her, but it was really tight.  I brought a jar of Vaseline and was getting ready to smear up her neck and head when, all of a sudden, one ear popped out!  I knew we were making progress!  Vicky held the light and I kept working on her head, gently but firmly, and OUT POPPED HER HEAD!!!  Vicky and I both started crying!

We assessed the kitty still trapped in the net to make sure she was ok.  The little gray tabby, did in fact, have a clipped ear, so we knew that she was already spayed.  I scruffed her to look over her face and her very wet face appeared to be ok, but she was SO hot from being in that jar!  I am not even sure that she could breathe all that well?  We released her back to her home and she took off.  Vicky and I cried again!

In the car, we continued to cry and talk about how wonderful it all turned out.  Thanks to God for allowing me to be a vessel for saving these innocent lives!  I am so privileged and do not take one moment of the rescue rewards for granted.  Each time the rescue is to save a life……………no matter how long it takes.

Thanks to Vicky Bryant for her determination in saving the beautiful little tabby girl.