Kebab survives a gruesome encounter

SPCA office Nicola Martin is surprised no one has come forward to claim the young cat nicknamed 'Kebab'. Picture / Alan Gibson

A Rotorua cat lost one of her nine lives in a most gory way when she became impaled on a steel rod, but the brave tortoiseshell is still purring.

Miraculously, the stake missed her internal organs by a whisker in the accident last week.

Nicknamed Kebab, the friendly cat is lapping up attention at the Rotorua SPCA centre while waiting for her owners to come forward.

With a 15cm stitched gash running the length of her right side, she has a cosy bed in the surgery, a smorgasbord of food and plenty of petting from staff.

"Up to a day or so ago she was in pain, though she never got grumpy with us," said SPCA warranted officer Nicola Martin yesterday.

"Now her drain has been removed she's started to come out of her shell."

The young cat apparently slipped off a tall fence in the early morning dew last Thursday, landing on a concrete reinforcing rod being used as a shrub stake.

About two-thirds of the way down she came to rest, transfixed by the rod running through skin flaps, muscle and stomach wall and emerging about 2cm away from her spine.

A woman roused by agonised howling found the skewered animal in her garden and called the SPCA.

When the ambulance driver arrived about 6.30am, the tortoiseshell was quietly curled around the pole "waiting for help", said Ms Martin.

Not wanting to trigger bleeding by removing the stake, the officer pulled the 2m-long rod from the ground and took it and cat to the animal centre.

Ms Martin said she was surprised no one had yet claimed her.