NEWS

Millville cat saved after jar removed from head

Joseph P. Smith
@jpsmith_dj
Dr. Kevin Ludwig (left), owner of the Animal Clinic of Millville, sedates a stray cat whose head is trapped in a plastic peanut butter jar. Ludwig and assistant Jordan Tijerina (right) then worked the jar off the sleeping cat on Tuesday.

MILLVILLE - A stray cat whose head was stuck for four days in a small peanut butter jar is healthy, if thirsty, after a local veterinarian was able to get the container off on Tuesday.

The fluffy gray feline is a regular visitor to the Oakview Apartments off Broad Street, where it and many other cats move between neighborhoods looking for food.

Oakview resident Shanique Hogan called in Millville Animal Control Officer Anthony Cills on advice from the Cumberland County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

“It’s crazy,” Hogan said. “I’m assuming he was eating inside of there and got stuck in there and couldn’t get back out. I think it’s a stray cat.”

Hogan said residents have seen the cat in that condition since at least Friday.

Actually, she said, it took two calls to police because the cat vanished the first time. On the second try, the cat still was there, and Cills crept up as it hid behind a vehicle and used “cat tongs” to snag it.

A stream, flooded with recent snow and rain, runs between the apartment complex and an adjacent residential community. Stray cats use the stream as a passage. Cills said the cat could have drowned easily if it had fallen into that stream with the jar on its head.

Cills took the cat to the Animal Clinic of Millville, where Dr. Kevin Ludwig had agreed to help.

Ludwig and assistant Jordan Tijerina sedated the cat, and Ludwig — with several applications of lubricant — finally slid off the jar of ShopRite peanut butter. The cat was given fluids to deal with dehydration.

A police animal transportation cage keeps this stray cat from running off Tuesday before it can be freed of a peanut butter jar stuck on its head. The animal was stuck in the jar for about four days according to residents of the Oakview Apartments in Millville. Animal Control Officer Anthony Cills arranged for Dr. Kevin Ludwig at Animal Clinic of Millville to treat the cat.
Where am I? Groggy from sedation, this stray cat awakens freed of a peanut butter jar in which its head had been stuck for about four days. It was found at the Oakview Apartments in Millville. Animal Control Officer Anthony Cills took her to the Animal Clinic of Millville, where Dr. Kevin Ludwig removed the jar.

Cills said there was an unconfirmed report that someone had put up images of the cat on Facebook. The cat was taken to the Cumberland County SPCA, according to Cills.

Joseph P. Smith: (856) 563-5252; jsmith@gannettnj.com