CARSON the cat has at most eight lives remaining after surviving as much as a month trapped inside the roof of North Vancouver's Carson Graham secondary.
The seven-year-old feline was rescued by builders last week after a crew working on a new wing of the facility heard mewing coming from an adjoining structure. They found the cat stuck inside a drainage unable or unwilling to extract itself. After firefighters tried unsuccessfully to get it out, the workers tore off flashing until they exposed it. The cat was rake-thin and filthy, but alive.
A City of North Vancouver animal control officer took the lost pet, dubbed Carson, to the Mosquito Creek Veterinary Hospital. Staff there have been nursing it carefully back to health in the days since.
"She was certainly starving," said veterinarian Janice Crook, "and she was completely covered in dirt, but she was purring."
The cat, named in turn Fiona by the clinic's staff, was suffering from liver failure, a condition that sets in in felines after they haven't eaten for five days or more. It appears the animal must have had access to a source of water despite dry weather, however, or it would not have survived as long as it did, said Crook.
Initially, the vet gave Carson a 50-50 chance of survival. Over the weekend, a staff member took the animal home, feeding it every half hour and watching it closely, and within a few days had brought it back from the brink.
"(The cat) couldn't hold her head up; my tech didn't think she'd live," said Crook. "Now . . . she's eating on her own, and she's coming in to talk to us."
The liver condition has also started to reverse, she said.
It's not clear how long the cat had been trapped, but Crook pegged its ordeal at a month.
Now, the veterinarian is hoping to return Carson to its owners.
The cat has a tattoo in one ear, suggesting it had had a proper home before it got trapped in the school. The number is only partially legible, however, so the clinic has not been able to determine who the animal is registered to.
"I'm sure there is a family out there wondering what happened to this cat," said Crook.
The veterinarian is asking anyone who recognizes Carson to contact her office via email at [email protected]. Anyone claiming to be the owner will be asked to provide information relating to the ear tattoo, she said.
