Abandoned cat found sealed in filthy litter box will be looking for a new home
WOODBRIDGE — Animal control officials are looking for the person or persons who sealed an orange tabby cat in a filthy litter box and abandoned him, to be discovered later with bloodied paws from trying to scratch his way out.
Soon, the cat, now named Oscar by his rescuers, will be looking for a new home.
Right now, however, “he’s scared to death,” said Karen Lombardi, animal control officer at Woodbridge Regional Animal Shelter, covering Woodbridge, Seymour and Bethany. “He’s petrified out of his mind. His pupils are dilated. He must have been an indoor cat.”
Oscar was found near Chatfield Park in Seymour, down a slope, about six to eight feet from the road. He will be up for adoption sometime next week.
Lombardi said what that person did to Oscar is animal cruelty and she’s hoping by spreading the cat’s photo on social media, someone will recognize him and connect him to the person who dumped him, who could face charges.
He was discovered in a covered litter box, which had an opening for the cat to enter and exit — but the opening was closed off with cardboard secured by masking tape, Lombardi said.
The investigation is ongoing, Lombardi
said, and part of it includes looking at a case in Wolcott the same day in which an orange cat was dumped similarly. That cat was left in a soft-sided carrier with the zipper shut.
If anyone has information on Oscar’s origins or is interested in adopting him, they can call animal control at 203-3895991.
He was lucky the weather wasn’t brutally cold and snowing, lucky a woman was walking in the area and noticed the litter box – and lucky to be alive.
A woman walking in Seymour happened to come across the litter box Wednesday, not realizing there was a cat inside until she heard it.
Oscar had torn his nails trying to claw his way out, and the inside was filthy, Lombardi said.
Lombardi said if it was a freezing day with snow, the outcome could have been grim.
She said Oscar looks as though he was well-cared for at one time – including because he looks well fed, which makes it even more perplexing that he would have been left on the side of the road, she said.
Lombardi said abandonment of animals is a crime even when there’s no cruelty involved and that for reasons unknown, “people are dumping animals left and right.” She said there are better ways to get rid of an unwanted animal, including rescue groups, the Humane Society, groups and local shelters.
“There’s reason to abandon an animal,” Lombardi said. “We want them to stop doing this. This is not about anything else but being decent to animals.”
Lombardi has seen a lot in her storied career, but said, “I’ve never seen a cat in a dirty litter box on the side of the road.”