Cat saved by RSPCA needed leg amputation after mill cellar rescue

Kitty survived her ordeal trapped for several weeks in the dank basement of industrial premises in Grimshaw Street, Clayton-Le-Moors, thanks to the RSPCA.

After falling into the mill cellar, Killy suffered a serious injury when the spike penetrated one of her hind legs, resulting in her needing an amputation.

She has now been adopted by relatives of her late owner and is padding around on three paws at her new home in Cheshire none the worse for the surgery.

New owner, and son of the late owner, Simon Cunningham, said: “It’s been quite emotional as Kitty was my mother’s cat.

"She’s doing really well now considering what she has been through.

Simon and Kitty together as she continues to recover from surgery

“She’s putting on weight, we’ve taken her to the vets for a check-up and we’ve also had her microchipped.”

Kitty had gone missing from her Lancashire home, close to where she was found, after her owner’s passing last month.

Trapped in the cellar the eight-year-old feline kept herself alive by drinking rain water and eating food debris.

Her lonely cries were finally heard by a workman and the RSPCA were contacted on May 13.

The cellar where Kitty was found

RSPCA Animal Rescue Officer Kelly Nix managed to reach Kitty using a ladder to climb 20 feet down into the cellar and found her running around in the gloom.

Her bone was left broken and exposed by the entanglement with the spike and she was taken to the RSPCA’s Greater Manchester Animal Hospital, where she underwent surgery.

Kelly said: “When I found her, she was running around with no way out. My guess is she’d been down there for quite a while.

“When she was x-rayed at the Greater Manchester Animal Hospital they could see foreign objects in her stomach, including chicken wing bones she’d eaten.

“There was a lot of rainwater down at the bottom of the cellar and she was drinking that and I think that has kept her alive.”