Ben Read and his family’s Christmas with 15-year-old cat Tinks won’t be so obvious this year. Not for the no longer very young age of the feline, but for his recent misadventures that led him to be almost killed by a waste press in a landfill.
Disappearing from his home in Portsmouth, southern England, a couple of weeks ago, the cat was seen falling along with a pile of rubbish on Tuesday from a lorry that was unloading waste for pressing at a landfill site in Fareham, just over than 10 kilometers away from the pet’s home. The contents of the vehicle (including the cat) came from a container at a recycling center in Hedge End, about 25 kilometers from Portsmouth. How Tinks ended up there remains a mystery and even more inexplicable is the fact that he is still alive, even considering the cold winter temperatures. And there’s more: “When the bin was collected, it was compacted with him inside: it’s a miracle that he managed to survive,” says The Cat Welfare Group on social media, the association that took care of the four-legged after the accident.
But the misadventures of Tinks the cat didn’t end there. When he jumped out of the garbage truck, the staff immediately halted the operation and, thanks to his promptness, allowed the cat to escape the press. The feline, however, got scared and, as The Cat Welfare Group writes, he fell from a 6-metre overhang: even in this case, he incredibly managed to survive.
After all his vicissitudes, the cat was recovered and taken to a veterinary center. Here he was examined and found a place for the night, while his rescuers tried to trace his family: the animal was in fact sterilized, but without a microchip. “Through the power of social media, her ‘human grandmother’ saw Tinks’ photo in our post and tagged her son (Ben Read, the owner, ed.),” says The Cat Welfare Group. So Tinks was able to go home, just in time to spend a peaceful Christmas with his family and dog Bella. And, after all these mishaps, he’s now been microchipped as well.
