A young cat is recovering after a pair of garbage collectors heard her cries Tuesday coming from an already crushed, tied-up trash bag in the back of their truck, animal welfare organization Humane Pennsylvania said.
"They saw a bag moving," Karel Minor, president and CEO of Humane Pennsylvania, told WFMZ. "They were shocked and surprised when they opened it to find the cat soaked in gasoline and strapped into a blanket and left to die."
The workers took the cat to the Humane Society of Berks County "in the nick of time," the animal rescue organization said in a Facebook post. Staff members named her Miracle Maisy.
Maisy was alert when she arrived at the facility, the Reading Eagle reported. She was moved to the Humane Veterinary Hospital of Reading for treatment.
"She was matted. She was terribly bruised from the beating she had taken. Her eyes were closed. (She) really looked horrible," Minor told WFMZ. "We didn't know if she was going to survive."
Veterinarian Kimya Davani told the Reading Eagle that it took hours to clean Maisy, who was also underweight and suffering from skin sensitivity.
“The technicians spent all day bathing and drying her,” Davani told the newspaper. “The gas was so embedded in her fur that she wasn't drying, and because of this her internal body temperature had dropped. We had to shave most of her body in order to get her temperature up again.”
Minor told WFMZ that Maisy was likely in the trash bag for nearly a day before she was discovered.
"This is clearly a house cat, a cat that was expecting humans to care for her," she said. "Maisy is as nice as can be, and that's probably why the person managed to get a hold of her and do this."
Humane Pennsylvania is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who abandoned Maisy.
Reading police are investigating the case.
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