Cat found alive in wall four months after condo fire
An Edmonton woman’s cat has been found emaciated but alive in a condominium wall more than four months after fire destroyed the building.
“It’s unbelievable. We still don’t understand how that’s even possible,” said Meagan Martin, who burst into tears when she first heard her cat was alive Tuesday.
The fire July 21 at Park Place in South Hamptons forced 400 residents to flee.
Martin woke up to an orange glow outside her window. She made a panicked dash to her infant son’s room, where flames were visible on her neighbour’s balcony just outside the boy’s window.
“It was think of my child first and get out,” she said. When she remembered the cat, Harmony, it was too late.
Her entire unit was destroyed in the fire and the roof fell in on top of it.
Martin searched for her cat after the fire. She and the Saving Animals from Euthanasia (SAFE) Team set traps, put out food and water and postered the neighbourhood, but to no avail. Until Tuesday.
Jack Murray, site superintendent with Service-Master Restore, was examining the heating system of a ground-floor suite when he saw the cat’s tail. “Its fur looked very dull and dry and dead-looking. You could see every bone in the poor little thing’s body,” Murray said.
He gave the cat a tuna sandwich, which she inhaled in two seconds.
When Murray called Kirby Seidler, founder of SAFE Team, she didn’t believe him right away. People had mistaken another neighbourhood cat for Harmony, but Murray was adamant.
When Seidler saw that it was indeed Harmony, she started crying. So did Murray.
“I couldn’t believe that she was still alive,” Seidler said. “I thought about the family, how much they’ve lost and how important and what this could do for them to have her back. The fact that this, obviously to me, was a miracle.”
Harmony was checked out by a vet and is in good condition, although she is severely underweight and a bit skittish. She weighs about three kilograms, but should be closer to seven, Seidler said.
Seidler believes Harmony was living in the wall to stay warm, leaving through a hole to hunt and pick up scraps. But the cat likely wouldn’t have lasted the rest of the winter, she said.
As for who kept tipping over the lunchroom garbage bin, Murray now has a good idea.
He refused the $250 reward. “You lost all your stuff in the fire, if I can give this back to you, that’s a reward in itself,” he said. “Something good has come out of this awful catastrophe.”
After watching the flames destroy her unit, Martin is still in awe that her friendly rescue cat survived.
“For her to get out and still be alive, we don’t know how that happened,” she said.
The cat slept in her bed all last night, and snuggled up to her in the evening. Her 16-month-old son, Ryu, remembers Harmony, too.
When they brought her home, he gave a great look of surprise, then leaned into her and started to babble.
“He just sat and just babbled to her. He wouldn’t leave her at all,” she said. “She’s part of the family.”