One stray cat found itself in a heartbreaking predicament when its front paws were frozen to the ground when temperatures well below freezing.
In the Urals city of Zlatoust it got extremely cold recently with temperatures dropping to -31 Fahrenheit. Hoping to find a warm shelter from the cold front, the adorable feline laid underneath a vehicle belonging to Sergey Baranov and his wife Yelena, according to The Siberian Times.
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The cat was able to fall asleep beneath the car, but its paws were completely frozen when it woke up.
“It must have got under the car in the evening, looking for a warm place, fell asleep and all its paws got frozen solid by the morning,” Sergey said.
Luckily for the cat, Sergey and Yelena were Good Samaritans and immediately decided to take action. After attempting to pick up the cat, they realized that its paws were stuck to the ground.
“It’s minus 35C,” Sergey says in the video. “You see how cold our winter is if even the cats get frozen outside.”
Yelena promptly filled up a bucket of water and carefully poured it over the cat’s leg. While cats typically do not like water, this stray cat that is believed to be a Norwegian forest cat, stayed completely calm.
The cat was eventually freed from the frozen ground, but it was unable to move its paws as they were still far too cold. It took about seven and a half minutes and five buckets of warm water to free the cat’s paws.
“It looks like she can’t move her paws at all,” Sergey says.
“I’ve got a contact for a vet, let’s call him now,” Yelena said in response.
Sergey shared the story on social media and gave an update writing, “We called a vet who came right away and he did an anti-inflammatory shot. By the end of the day, the cat had started to walk. It looks very young, only seven to nine months. Three days later, after making sure the cat was all right, I posted an announcement on my page and a girl from our city said she wanted to pick it up. The cat has now lived at her house for a week and she says he seems to be fine. He runs and jumps around.”
How would you have reacted if you saw this cat with its paws frozen to the ground?
[H/T People, The Siberian Times]
