Napier cat dumped in a duffel bag: Church backyard find hailed as a 'miracle'

Hallelujah, pictured with animal attendant Tamra Hay, is not happy about being dumped in a zipped bag but is "such a loving cat". Photo / Paul Taylor

Hallelujah the cat's staunch face says it all - she doesn't forget those who've wronged her.

So if you were the person who zipped her into a duffel bag and threw her into the back of a church property in Napier, she knows. She remembers.

The SPCA Napier Centre is appealing for information after the 5-year-old female tabby cat was found at the back of St Thomas More Catholic Church in Wycliffe St on Wednesday morning.

Staff named her Hallelujah, "as it was a miracle she was found alive".

SPCA Napier animal attendant Rachel Sumner said two people got the surprise of their lives when they saw the black duffel bag at the back of the church move, and then opened it.

They brought Hallelujah into the SPCA and she was "drenched in her own urine, was very thirsty, very hot and gasping".

Sumner said Halleujah was wearing "quite an expensive" Seresto flea collar and has a microchip, but the microchip is not registered.

Her whole body is covered in dermatitis, but she is otherwise in good health.

Hallelujah with the bag she was zipped in. Photo / SPCA Napier Centre

The people who brought her in suspected that someone had thrown the bag over the back fence, which borders a walkway beside a stream.

"There's really no other way for her to have got there in a bag unless someone had walked down through the church property themselves, which is unlikely," Sumner said.

At the centre, Hallelujah was quickly given some food and water which she "readily consumed" and was then taken to the vet for a check over.

She has been shaved in some places as the dermatitis was so bad and they needed to treat her,

Sumner said Hallelujah is "such a loving cat" and wasn't sedated while being shaved but just "sat there and purred".

She has been shaved to treat her dermatitis but is otherwise in good health. Photo / SPCA Napier Centre

While this case is "pretty exceptional", the SPCA has animals coming to it in all sorts of ways from inside beer boxes to laundry baskets.

Sumner encourages anyone who needs help caring for their pets to get in touch with the SPCA if they need assistance.

"No one should resort to leaving a cat in a bag and dumping it."

Providing no one comes forward she will be put up for adoption.

Those with information should call the SPCA Napier Centre on 06 835 7758. All information provided will be treated as confidential.