Skewered cat fit enough to go home

The Rotorua cat who was found skewered on a 2m-long steel rod being used as a garden stake is expected to go home today.

And the 5-year-old tortoiseshell has shed her nickname "Kebab" and reverted to Missy.

Her publicity shy owners, a young family, had been away when their cat came to grief two weeks ago.

On their return, they were upset to find she had disappeared from her minder and, later, horrified when someone showed them Missy's picture in the newspaper with a story of her gory impaling.

Two little girls and their mother were in tears when they came to identify their pet at the Rotorua SPCA centre, from where they had adopted her as a kitten, said vice-president Britta Bowden.

"They were shocked when they saw the size of the pole that had been removed from her."

By a stroke of luck, the stake missed the cat's internal organs by a whisker. It pierced through skin flaps, muscle and stomach wall, emerging about 2cm away from her spine.

As soon as her owners called her name Missy started to smooch them, said Mrs Bowden.

However, she had to remain at the centre for a few more days while staff monitored her healing. A second session of surgery "to tidy things up a bit" was necessary early this week.

"But she's doing really well. I saw her running for the first time this morning," Mrs Bowden said yesterday.