I was flabbergasted when I saw these two photographs. The first shows this long-haired tabby cat unresponsive and frozen inside snow. To all intents and purposes Fluffy looks dead. It’s hard to come to any other conclusion. She was buried in the snow outside her home in Montana when temperatures hit a 9°F low. That was during the polar vortex, a much discussed weather phenomena which recently hit parts of the northern states of America.
Extraordinarily, veterinarians thawed her out with hairdryers, warm towels and fluids. Within an hour she was responsive and doing great. She continues to do well, the veterinarians say. The photographs, incidentally, come from the Animal Clinic of Kalispell. Well done and thank you.
It’s believed that Fluffy was unable to get home during the cold snap due to injury but it is unclear what the injury might have been. I’m just amazed by the recovery powers of the domestic cat. They have an enormous durability and when you consider that their wild cat ancestor is a desert loving small wildcat it’s amazing that they tolerate cold so well.
We don’t now how long she was frozen and ostensibly dead. She must have been alive but in a state akin to hibernation due to the extreme cold.
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Really amazing that Fluffy survived as well as she did, without even any frostbite injuries. I am sure there are numerous cats that do not pull through these situations. Many thanks to the Animal Clinic of Kalispell for working fervently to revive her despite insurmountable odds. 💜💜🐾
And this is another why humans must NOT let their kids outside!!! Bloody morons!!
And then there’s the hundreds of thousands of TNR colony cats whose populations were reduced this way, never to be found. If lucky, found in spring after they’ve thawed out and became a writhing mass of maggots. Ain’t TNR just WONDERFUL! Promote TNR some more. Cats and cat-owners love you for it. So does every last cat-hater who just loves hearing about cats being forced to suffer to death at the hands of “cat lovers”. 🙂
I stepped outside the other night when it was a mere 40 something degrees F and immediately I thought I would die if I had to endure that all night. My thoughts also went to the poor animals who have to endure it every day and night in conditions where I wouldn’t last 5 minutes without feeling I’d rather be dead. The states where the polar vortex hit those animals, especially domestic cats who aren’t used to that kind of deep freeze must feel and be 100 times worse. Yes they can manage to recover, with any luck and help, but it’s still torture. They must be thinking “Why is this happening to me? I can’t take it.”