A whisker from death
Acurious cat has made a miraculous recovery after eating 3ft of gift wrapping ribbon. Hungry Hendrick decided to snack on the unusual item while his owners were away – but after emergency surgery to remove the ribbon, the threeyear-old moggy is feline much better.
Owner Faith Orchard, who had left Hendrick in the care of a neighbour while she enjoyed a short break with husband Tom, knew something was wrong with her beloved cat as soon as they returned home.
“The first thing we saw was a couple of inches of ribbon sticking out of his mouth,” she said.
“As I pulled, about half a metre came out then it wouldn’t move any further.
“He started foaming at the mouth and bringing up blood. We panicked and realised it was a lot more serious than we first thought.” Faith, 29, rushed Hendrick to Vets Now in Reading, where X-rays and an ultrasound scan revealed a linear foreign body lodged in his intestine.
Vet Anita Notenboom then carried out a laparotomy and went on to remove 90cm of ribbon. “If we’d waited another 12 hours, he probably wouldn’t have made it,” Faith said.
Three days later though, while recuperating at the vet, Hendrick developed a high temperature and would not eat or go to the toilet.
“We were really worried,” said university lecturer Faith. “When we visited him, he looked so bad we thought he wasn’t going to be coming home.”
But Faith was given the green light to collect Hendrick a few days later and keep giving him his medication at home.
“He’s back to normal now,” she said. “All he has to show for his ordeal is a shaved belly and an impressive scar.”