The Cat and the Can

After several weeks with no refrigerator due to a delay on parts the repairman finally came and I had to put the fur hounds up so they didn’t lick him to death. As he patiently waited outside I put up the dogs and headed to the kitchen door only to hear this howling and banging in the laundry room. It sounded as if a drunken brawl was taken place between two pole cats.

Having a five month old kitten I stopped to open the door thinking perhaps his cat door had stuck. I was quite amazed to see my cat with his head stuck in a can flailing about, doing flips and scratching anything in sight in a useless attempt to extract himself from the can stuck on his head.

I am sure the repair man was not expecting me to come to the door with a wild, howling cat with a can firmly stuck on it’s head and me grasping it by the scruff of the neck trying, vainly I might add, to keep from being ripped to shreds. But he seemed to be un-phased and went to work on the refrigerator and I went to the sink and to work on the kitten. 15 minutes later after copious amounts of dish detergent (I now have another use for Dawn) the cat was extracted and the bath ensued to remove the spaghetti sauce that stained his white mane an unnatural orange.

The trying event left kitty traumatized and I am sure afraid of cans for the rest of his life and shame on me for not closing the garbage lid but it started me to think. The can was a pop top lid, you know the type, the one with the small metal lip inside the can that you furiously shake the contents over when the can is finally open. Well in our haste for pop top convenience I wonder how many animals we have condemned to a slow and agonizing death with their head stuck in one of these death traps?

We dispose of such items and do not think much of what happens to them, but in dumps and landfills animals just like my kitty find such food left in the bottom of the can irresistable and may very well end up trapped with no rescue to come.

Now I am no bleeding animal rights person, but I do believe strongly about safety to living things so please take a moment and think about these type of cans. It only takes a second to smash the top to a point that no animal can get it’s head stuck in the can. So next time you use a pop top can, CRUSH THE TOP!