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#1
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Astounding cat entrapment
What an amazing story, Knut! I'm so glad Sylvester is home at last. I
agree that, after surviving for so long under those conditions, he deserves a chance. -- Joy "Knut Moe" wrote in message ... Sylvester disappeared Tuesday July 1st in the afternoon. Of course, being the head of our family, we feared something might have happened to him - as he had never stayed away from the house for more than a few hours at a time. Neighbors were alerted (thanks Ulf and Anna, Berit, Kjetil, and all the kids around here for being on the look-out!), posters were distributed, animalshelters were notified. All to no avail; seemingly Sylvester had been swallowed up by the ground. For the next weeks we searched quite a lot in the greater Furuset area, and also nearby our house. Our guess was that Sylvester had been annoyed by the fact that we just got our new dog (Alfa), and decided to protest this by taking a prolonged leave of absence. We couldn't have been more wrong. While we were looking for Sylvester, we came across a few other stray cats, one especially, who was looking sort of scruffy and in dire need of a longer bath. We checked him out, found a eartag and checked out the missing-list at www.nettkatten.no. Success! His owners had handed him over to a family catsitter at Grefsen in Oslo, and he had escaped from there. In february, 2003!!!! From Grefsen to Furuset the distance is about 10 km, crossing about 2-3 freeways in the process of getting here. The owners aborted their holidays, and got here in record time. Needless to say they were quite surprised to see him again, and their gratitude was overwhelming. We were, of course, very happy for them - but missed Sylvester more than ever - although the fact that there seem to be more than a few long-time reunions between cats and owners (or "staff" as we like to call us) gave us a little hope. Apart from this, our summervacation passed, and hopes of finding Sylvester, let alone find out what happened to him, faded. We received about 15 calls and requests to check a straycat out, but they were all somebody elses cats. People do really want to help, though. The real breakthrough came Tuesday August 12th 2003. I had just finished a businessmeeting at Kolbotn, and my cellphone rang. An agitated voice told me she had found my cat, strangely enough I instinctively believed her. "It had to be him - I just dropped him off at the vet, and saw your poster on the way back. Give them a call!" I didn't get her name or anything, just hurled myself into the car, and drove to the clinic - picking up Siren and Sebastian on my way there. (Thank God there weren't any police controlposts on my way). The woman who found Sylvester gave me some disturbing information about a schoolcontainer, and I was thinking in the direction of trash-dumpster or something similiar - giving me some hope that Sylvester something to eat whilst being trapped. Again I was to be negatively surprised. When we got to the vet, my poor cat was a pitiful sight. Weighing in at 2.3 kg, he had lost around 5 kg. All skin and bones, completely dehydrated (even the eyes looked strange). He could not stand, eat or take care of himself. For the next 4 days, he was treated at the clinic - after the initial bloodwork turned out - "Miracolously", according to the senior veterinarian - very good. Sylvester was given fluids intranvenously, and started to improve immediately - much to the staff's surprise. Although dehydrated cats are not uncommon, they had not seen a condition like this turn out well - they had not seen a condition like this at all. We visited Sylvester daily, and called there even more often. From each visit we saw improvement; gaining stability, increasing fluidlevels, starting to eat by himself, starting to drink by himself - even the bowelmovement was great news, of course. We were also quite happy to see him start to clean himself up, he was quite smelly at the time. While Sylvester was recuperating at the clinic, we got to the bottom of what had happened at the school. The staff had carried alot of furniture out, and into a shippingcontainer (the ones you see on boats and big trucks). The container was to be used as a storagearea due to interiorwork in the school over the summer. After it was filled up with tables, chairs, shelves, some toilets and so on - it was locked up and left for the summer - all the staff getting on with their holidays. Just before they locked, Sylvester must have snuck in, and found himself a nice spot to relax. 6 weeks later- that is 42 days and nights - the now skinny cat came tumbling out when they opened the container to carry all the furniture inside. The rest is, as they say, history. Sylvester came home from the clinic Friday, and has been with us for 24 hours as I'm writing this. He is eating, drinking and being very - VERY - sociable. He has even been horsing a little around with Alfa and Sebastian, but mostly he's resting in our bed (there are no taboos after being subjected to a trauma like that). The bed is, tragically, located less than 50 meters from where the container was situated. People at the clinic and elsewhere asked us if we had thought about euthenasia, but I think that would be terribly wrong. Having lived through an ordeal like that, we will give him plenty of time to get well - even if he does not recover fully, we will keep him as long as God's willing - we just have to provide some extra care. We have no idea is this story is one of a kind, or if there are others stories alike. If there are, please send us an email - we would like to get in touch with other catstaff who know of any long-term effects and share experiences. I guess we all know that cats are extremely durable, right now I'm just curious as to what extent. |
#2
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On Sat, 16 Aug 2003 7:56:50 -0700, Knut Moe wrote
(in message ): That is pretty amazing. I agree after surviving that for so long it would be wrong not to give him a chance. I heard of a cat in a container like that on a container ship who survived. They figured he survived by licking condensation off the inside of the container. I would imagine there would be a lot more of that on a ship at sea than Sylvester had. Sylvester disappeared Tuesday July 1st in the afternoon. Of course, being the head of our family, we feared something might have happened to him - as he had never stayed away from the house for more than a few hours at a time. Neighbors were alerted (thanks Ulf and Anna, Berit, Kjetil, and all the kids around here for being on the look-out!), posters were distributed, animalshelters were notified. All to no avail; seemingly Sylvester had been swallowed up by the ground. For the next weeks we searched quite a lot in the greater Furuset area, and also nearby our house. Our guess was that Sylvester had been annoyed by the fact that we just got our new dog (Alfa), and decided to protest this by taking a prolonged leave of absence. We couldn't have been more wrong. While we were looking for Sylvester, we came across a few other stray cats, one especially, who was looking sort of scruffy and in dire need of a longer bath. We checked him out, found a eartag and checked out the missing-list at www.nettkatten.no. Success! His owners had handed him over to a family catsitter at Grefsen in Oslo, and he had escaped from there. In february, 2003!!!! From Grefsen to Furuset the distance is about 10 km, crossing about 2-3 freeways in the process of getting here. The owners aborted their holidays, and got here in record time. Needless to say they were quite surprised to see him again, and their gratitude was overwhelming. We were, of course, very happy for them - but missed Sylvester more than ever - although the fact that there seem to be more than a few long-time reunions between cats and owners (or "staff" as we like to call us) gave us a little hope. Apart from this, our summervacation passed, and hopes of finding Sylvester, let alone find out what happened to him, faded. We received about 15 calls and requests to check a straycat out, but they were all somebody elses cats. People do really want to help, though. The real breakthrough came Tuesday August 12th 2003. I had just finished a businessmeeting at Kolbotn, and my cellphone rang. An agitated voice told me she had found my cat, strangely enough I instinctively believed her. "It had to be him - I just dropped him off at the vet, and saw your poster on the way back. Give them a call!" I didn't get her name or anything, just hurled myself into the car, and drove to the clinic - picking up Siren and Sebastian on my way there. (Thank God there weren't any police controlposts on my way). The woman who found Sylvester gave me some disturbing information about a schoolcontainer, and I was thinking in the direction of trash-dumpster or something similiar - giving me some hope that Sylvester something to eat whilst being trapped. Again I was to be negatively surprised. When we got to the vet, my poor cat was a pitiful sight. Weighing in at 2.3 kg, he had lost around 5 kg. All skin and bones, completely dehydrated (even the eyes looked strange). He could not stand, eat or take care of himself. For the next 4 days, he was treated at the clinic - after the initial bloodwork turned out - "Miracolously", according to the senior veterinarian - very good. Sylvester was given fluids intranvenously, and started to improve immediately - much to the staff's surprise. Although dehydrated cats are not uncommon, they had not seen a condition like this turn out well - they had not seen a condition like this at all. We visited Sylvester daily, and called there even more often. From each visit we saw improvement; gaining stability, increasing fluidlevels, starting to eat by himself, starting to drink by himself - even the bowelmovement was great news, of course. We were also quite happy to see him start to clean himself up, he was quite smelly at the time. While Sylvester was recuperating at the clinic, we got to the bottom of what had happened at the school. The staff had carried alot of furniture out, and into a shippingcontainer (the ones you see on boats and big trucks). The container was to be used as a storagearea due to interiorwork in the school over the summer. After it was filled up with tables, chairs, shelves, some toilets and so on - it was locked up and left for the summer - all the staff getting on with their holidays. Just before they locked, Sylvester must have snuck in, and found himself a nice spot to relax. 6 weeks later- that is 42 days and nights - the now skinny cat came tumbling out when they opened the container to carry all the furniture inside. The rest is, as they say, history. Sylvester came home from the clinic Friday, and has been with us for 24 hours as I'm writing this. He is eating, drinking and being very - VERY - sociable. He has even been horsing a little around with Alfa and Sebastian, but mostly he's resting in our bed (there are no taboos after being subjected to a trauma like that). The bed is, tragically, located less than 50 meters from where the container was situated. People at the clinic and elsewhere asked us if we had thought about euthenasia, but I think that would be terribly wrong. Having lived through an ordeal like that, we will give him plenty of time to get well - even if he does not recover fully, we will keep him as long as God's willing - we just have to provide some extra care. We have no idea is this story is one of a kind, or if there are others stories alike. If there are, please send us an email - we would like to get in touch with other catstaff who know of any long-term effects and share experiences. I guess we all know that cats are extremely durable, right now I'm just curious as to what extent. |
#3
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Sorry for piggy-backing, but missed the OP somehow.
So glad that Sylvester was found, and that during the search you were able to help reunite the other kitty with his family. As you said, cats can be amazingly durable, and I couldn't give up on him either after all he'd been through. I guess it's understandable, though, for the suggestion to be brought up - as he was literally skin and bones. The closest story I have that relates to this occurred a few years ago. There was a cat who adopted our apartment complex, and was fed by half the people here. He slept inside just about whenever he wanted, sort of rotating around through the complex and slept here about once or twice a week. To make a long story a little shorted, when one of the tenant moved out of state he was locked up in the moving van. Several days later, when the furniture caught up with the former tenant, he was found to be in pretty good shape. Thankfully, the former tenat called back to the manager to let us know he'd been found. On Sat, 16 Aug 2003 21:07:07 GMT, John Biltz wrote: On Sat, 16 Aug 2003 7:56:50 -0700, Knut Moe wrote (in message ): That is pretty amazing. I agree after surviving that for so long it would be wrong not to give him a chance. I heard of a cat in a container like that on a container ship who survived. They figured he survived by licking condensation off the inside of the container. I would imagine there would be a lot more of that on a ship at sea than Sylvester had. Sylvester disappeared Tuesday July 1st in the afternoon. Of course, being the head of our family, we feared something might have happened to him - as he had never stayed away from the house for more than a few hours at a time. Neighbors were alerted (thanks Ulf and Anna, Berit, Kjetil, and all the kids around here for being on the look-out!), posters were distributed, animalshelters were notified. All to no avail; seemingly Sylvester had been swallowed up by the ground. For the next weeks we searched quite a lot in the greater Furuset area, and also nearby our house. Our guess was that Sylvester had been annoyed by the fact that we just got our new dog (Alfa), and decided to protest this by taking a prolonged leave of absence. We couldn't have been more wrong. While we were looking for Sylvester, we came across a few other stray cats, one especially, who was looking sort of scruffy and in dire need of a longer bath. We checked him out, found a eartag and checked out the missing-list at www.nettkatten.no. Success! His owners had handed him over to a family catsitter at Grefsen in Oslo, and he had escaped from there. In february, 2003!!!! From Grefsen to Furuset the distance is about 10 km, crossing about 2-3 freeways in the process of getting here. The owners aborted their holidays, and got here in record time. Needless to say they were quite surprised to see him again, and their gratitude was overwhelming. We were, of course, very happy for them - but missed Sylvester more than ever - although the fact that there seem to be more than a few long-time reunions between cats and owners (or "staff" as we like to call us) gave us a little hope. Apart from this, our summervacation passed, and hopes of finding Sylvester, let alone find out what happened to him, faded. We received about 15 calls and requests to check a straycat out, but they were all somebody elses cats. People do really want to help, though. The real breakthrough came Tuesday August 12th 2003. I had just finished a businessmeeting at Kolbotn, and my cellphone rang. An agitated voice told me she had found my cat, strangely enough I instinctively believed her. "It had to be him - I just dropped him off at the vet, and saw your poster on the way back. Give them a call!" I didn't get her name or anything, just hurled myself into the car, and drove to the clinic - picking up Siren and Sebastian on my way there. (Thank God there weren't any police controlposts on my way). The woman who found Sylvester gave me some disturbing information about a schoolcontainer, and I was thinking in the direction of trash-dumpster or something similiar - giving me some hope that Sylvester something to eat whilst being trapped. Again I was to be negatively surprised. When we got to the vet, my poor cat was a pitiful sight. Weighing in at 2.3 kg, he had lost around 5 kg. All skin and bones, completely dehydrated (even the eyes looked strange). He could not stand, eat or take care of himself. For the next 4 days, he was treated at the clinic - after the initial bloodwork turned out - "Miracolously", according to the senior veterinarian - very good. Sylvester was given fluids intranvenously, and started to improve immediately - much to the staff's surprise. Although dehydrated cats are not uncommon, they had not seen a condition like this turn out well - they had not seen a condition like this at all. We visited Sylvester daily, and called there even more often. From each visit we saw improvement; gaining stability, increasing fluidlevels, starting to eat by himself, starting to drink by himself - even the bowelmovement was great news, of course. We were also quite happy to see him start to clean himself up, he was quite smelly at the time. While Sylvester was recuperating at the clinic, we got to the bottom of what had happened at the school. The staff had carried alot of furniture out, and into a shippingcontainer (the ones you see on boats and big trucks). The container was to be used as a storagearea due to interiorwork in the school over the summer. After it was filled up with tables, chairs, shelves, some toilets and so on - it was locked up and left for the summer - all the staff getting on with their holidays. Just before they locked, Sylvester must have snuck in, and found himself a nice spot to relax. 6 weeks later- that is 42 days and nights - the now skinny cat came tumbling out when they opened the container to carry all the furniture inside. The rest is, as they say, history. Sylvester came home from the clinic Friday, and has been with us for 24 hours as I'm writing this. He is eating, drinking and being very - VERY - sociable. He has even been horsing a little around with Alfa and Sebastian, but mostly he's resting in our bed (there are no taboos after being subjected to a trauma like that). The bed is, tragically, located less than 50 meters from where the container was situated. People at the clinic and elsewhere asked us if we had thought about euthenasia, but I think that would be terribly wrong. Having lived through an ordeal like that, we will give him plenty of time to get well - even if he does not recover fully, we will keep him as long as God's willing - we just have to provide some extra care. We have no idea is this story is one of a kind, or if there are others stories alike. If there are, please send us an email - we would like to get in touch with other catstaff who know of any long-term effects and share experiences. I guess we all know that cats are extremely durable, right now I'm just curious as to what extent. |
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