Huntingdon Weekly Round-up – It's Cats News Week

Its been a week of cats stories with one of our feline friends having a giant hairball removed in an operation and a second being saved from the freezing waters of the Ouse at Huntingdon by passer-by. Each cat "Gemma" and "Toad" are the furry friends names, having now used up one of it's nines.

RSPCA officer Jane Folly was called by a member of the public who had heard a cat crying in the river on 10th January near Moat Castle Road. Toad is black in colour so it was difficult to he him in the dark, but they could hear him so Jane put on her dry suit and swan out to the stranded cat who was half in the freezing water and half on a reed bed. Members of the public assisted the RSPCA officer by hold a line to her while she was in the water.

It is not know how the cat ended up in the water, but Toad had a broken pelvis possibly from being hit by a car and then falling into the water. Obviously the RSPCA haven't ruled out something far nastier, that Toad was deliberately thrown into the the river.

Toad was taken to a local vets and is now at the Wood Green Animal Sanctuary and doing fine, he is about six months old, playful and has now been reserved by a family.

The other cat story making the news this week involves Gemma, who after not eating for a number days was bought into the Cromwell Vet Group in Huntingdon. She was discovered to have a hairball filling her entire stomach cavity. Had is remained it would have killed her, so the vets operated on Gemma remove a massive 5in hairball. The largest the vets have every seen in Huntingdon.

Cats normally cough up small hairball when they groom themselves, for some reason Gemma had not and as the ball got larger it became impossible. Gemma is now safely back home and with some advice on grooming for the loving owners it shouldn't happen again.

So a couple of good news in the end for a couple of local cats. Anyone have any more local Huntingdon cat related stories to tell? Let us know. We love a good cat or dog story.

Photo: MowT