Feral Cat Wore Jagged Glass Collar

Readers, this is a strange story, but it’s important for people to realize what a tough life feral cats have. It also shows a very unusual accident that happened to one feral cat. Maybe it should be added to my article Accidental Ways To Kill A Cat. I’ve never heard of this happening, but it’s good information to know.

Feral cat “Robinson 3” with jagged glass collar. Screenshot.

Images of this cat have gone viral in the few weeks since her rescue. The cat, now named Robinson 3, is a feral. She’s being treated at a veterinary clinic in Warwick, Rhode Island after being found in Narragansett. Now for the puzzling situation: Robinson had the sharp remains of a glass jar stuck around her neck.

THE VIDEO THAT WAS HERE HAS BEEN DELETED AS IT NO LONGER WORKED – SORRY.

The nearest anyone can guess is that somehow the cat got her head accidentally stuck inside a jar when licking up some food inside it. This poor kitty had to break the jar in order to breathe by banging her head against something hard. That must have been dangerous with shards of glass flying around her eyes. A wide band of jagged glass remained around her neck after she successfully smashed the jar, making a tight collar. Smashing it must have been an act of desperation.

It reminds me of the kitten in Kenya who go his head stuck in a plastic container and no one wanted to free him because they thought the cat was a possessed person.

Robinson 3 was rescued by volunteer Liz Skrobisch and taken to the Rhode Island Community Spay and Neuter Clinic, who also helped in the rescue. She is now free of the jar and plans made to spay her. The jar was fairly easy to remove. It smashed open when clipped. Perhaps pliers were used.

It’s estimated that Robinson wore the glass collar for as long as three weeks. People were looking for her and traps were set in order to trap the kitty so she could be helped.

PawsWatch, a group of feral rescue volunteers who help more than 1000 cats each year through TNRM, is caring for the cat. They have a Facebook page here.

PawsWatch works through local vets using volunteers to get discounted services for the feral cat colonies they manage. It’s nice they had a place at their rescue for this poor kitty to recover.

Robinson 3 has now gone viral, thanks to the internet spreading the photo of her with the “glass collar.” Hopefully it will help spread the word that TNR works. And to keep all glass jars out of the reach of cats.

Elisa

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Comments

Feral Cat Wore Jagged Glass Collar — 12 Comments

Leah on June 4, 2013 at 11:18 pm said:
What a shame for that kitty I’m so please hers was a happy ending 🙂
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Elisa on May 31, 2013 at 2:14 am said:
Be sure to go read this one. The comments are better than the article itself. Things I never thought of https://pictures-of-cats.org/accidental-ways-to-kill-a-cat.html
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Karen Swiney on May 30, 2013 at 6:32 am said:
Stories like this would be rare if humans would neutralize the animal hazards in their trash. I do. As a Meowmy with 6 of my own, fostering for the local cat rescue, and feeding the ferals residing in the RV park where I live, I am very aware of trash hazards. Before it goes into my trash can, all jars are rinsed and the lids put on tightly, all bags are rinsed and split open or tied in knots to avoid entrapment, all cans are rinsed and crushed, and anything circular is cut apart to avoid entrapment. But, alas, most humans don’t think beyond their own convenience and I seriously doubt this will ever change. Every now and again, I post a statement on my facebook wall about neutralizing animal hazards in the trash in an attempt to educate those will listen. We do what we can and lead by example.
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- Michael on May 30, 2013 at 10:27 am said:
  “neutralizing animal hazards in the trash”
  This is an excellent topic for an article. I have not considered it until now, thanks to you. In the UK, trash is put into sealed bins that cats can’t get to. That, at least, is the case for blocks of apartments in London! Karen, if you have time could you be kind enough to write 20 lines on the subject and drop it into the form on the home page? I would love that and it may protect another cat or other animal from harm. Or just write 20 lines in another comment with some more detail and I’ll make it into an article.
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- Marc on May 30, 2013 at 12:43 pm said:
  I agree Karen – it would be nice to know the details of how to make trash safe. I hadn’t thought of some of those things and of course many haven’t and won’t but others will and could learn from a short list of pointers and advice on how best to make trash safe if you haven’t got a can or solid container for it. It’s great to hear from somebody with alot of experience. Where I live we don’t have stray or feral cats. I think many people do care though and would not necessarily have thought of neutralizing their garbage to avoid these kinds of horrible situations. Thx for commenting.
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Elisa on May 30, 2013 at 6:00 am said:
Michael I hate to tell you this but my horror stories about animals get 10x the hits of the happy stories. Makes me wonder about human nature. I can do an abuse or an injured animal story and have 1000 people read it, then only have 20 people read a happy ending story. What are your thoughts on this?
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- Michael on May 30, 2013 at 8:01 am said:
  I can believe it. It is ghoulish voyeurism. The only thing that gets people interested in feral cats is something sensational or cruel or ugly. Humankind is sad.
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- Marc on May 30, 2013 at 12:39 pm said:
  Elisa do you remember the story of ‘Jar Kitty’ who had her head stuck in a jar for weeks and was eventually caught and freed. They thought she died but then she reappeared. Bernadette Kasmarski from Creative Cat wrote about it and showed pictures of the poor cat after she was freed from the jar. This reminds me of that. Luck the jar smashed because they often have to be hit very hard to actually break – this is a very lucky but scary story.
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  - Elisa on May 30, 2013 at 9:11 pm said:
    I don’t remember that one, but I’ve been without internet at home for almost a year now. I finally got a USB stick for prepaid internet that I can get a signal on at work. Still I miss a lot of articles and don’t comment nearly as much as I’d like to.
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    - marc on May 31, 2013 at 4:51 am said:
      If you are interested then just search ‘jar kitty’ in google and click on the Creative Cat link – that’s Bernadette’s site – I’m sure you must know her. It’s a very complete and detailed story about something similar. Although it was all ok in the end, the ‘during’ was certainly not good, worse than this example I’d say because of the jar remaining intact.
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- Caroline on May 31, 2013 at 2:41 am said:
  Elisa, from reading all of your coments, because I respect you from them, and your pages that Michael put up on his site, what you just wrote is something that needs to be addressed on so many sites, not just ailurophile sites, predominantly this one. I state the obvious.
  Thank you for saying what you said, if I understood correctly. We, as ailurophiles, need to take the time to get beyond reaching out to those who preach to the choir, and really expend our energy educating and sometimes even begging? those who ignore the fact that our beloved felines are held in a state of denigration and abuse more than any other mammal on this planet possibly.
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Michael on May 30, 2013 at 5:49 am said:
Three weeks is a long time to suffer with a sharp glass collar. It must have been difficult to see before the jar was broken and of course impossible to eat or drink. You can imagine the desperation of the cat. I wonder how long she had the full jar around her head until she decided to smash it. Smart move to work that out. I guess hunger and thirst drove to break it.
Good story but another sad one. Nice to see how people rallying around to help but why do people rally around for this cat but not all the other deserving feral cats?
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