On Thursday, a guy was strolling through a garbage in Athens, New York, when he heard faint, small screams and decided to investigate on the spur of the moment. He got down on his knees and peeked behind the garbage, where he spotted a small 3-week-old cat fully encased in tar and battling for her life.
The man dived beneath the garbage and struggled for an hour to release the small cat, subsequently called Lucky, knowing he couldn’t just leave her there. She couldn’t move or do anything but scream like a cat since she was completely covered in tar. When she was eventually released, she was brought to AnimalKind Rescue, where stunned rescuers immediately went to work saving her life.
“Because of her precarious state and the heat of the day, we quickly gave her fluids,” Katrin Hecker, founder of AnimalKind, told us. “We next cleaned her in warm water with Dawn [soap], but her limbs were all stuck together. Then for three hours, four workers scrubbed her with mineral oil and washed her with Dawn.”
Lucky’s rescuers were ultimately able to remove all of the thick tar from her body, but it took a long time and a lot of patience. Everyone was scared she wouldn’t make it because she was so young and had already been through so much, but as the hours and days passed, Lucky proved she was a warrior and planned to make a complete recovery.
Hecker described her as “very small yet a warrior.” “From the hot tar, she has minor burn wounds on her little body. These are excellent for healing. She is in a foster home and is eating well.”
Despite the manner in which she was discovered, Lucky’s rescuers believe that her entire ordeal with the tar was an accident, and that she was likely abandoned by her mother.
Given the circumstances, Lucky is doing exceptionally well in her foster home, where she is being cared for by a mom cat whose own kittens have all been adopted. She also has a dog foster brother who has been keeping a careful eye on her and ensuring that she is safe while navigating her way about.
