Whilst out walking around her neighbourhood, a member of the public was surprised by the loud sounds of a cat crying.

The noises seemed to be coming from some nearby wheelie bins. The member of the public then made a shocking find – a tiny, terrified cat was trapped inside a taped-up litter tray, and left out for the local refuse collectors to take away.

Thrown away like rubbish

She immediately called us for help, and our Animal Welfare team advised her to bring the cat straight in to us.

We named the ginger and white bundle Barbara, and upon closer inspection, we discovered that the 10 month-old cat was covered in her own urine, and had no food with her. To make matters worse, her collar had been wrapped tightly twice around her neck, and was suffocating her. Unsurprisingly, Barbara was also in a considerable amount of pain and distress from being trapped inside such a small space for an unknown amount of time.

Tania Mazzoni, one of our Animal Welfare Officers, carefully coaxed Barbara out of her litter tray prison so that our vets could take a closer look at her. We then managed to remove the collar and clean her up, before settling her down into a warm and cosy cabin in our cattery to recover. When Barbara was feeling a little bit calmer, we were able to give her a full health check and make sure she had not suffered any lasting effects from her ordeal.

Lucky to be found

Barbara was incredibly lucky that her cries were heard, and that we were alerted. If she hadn’t have been found, she would have ended up inside a bin lorry, where she may then have been crushed to death or abandoned on a landfill site, with no hope of escape.