Massachusetts Vets Stunned To Discover A Little Helpless Soul Trapped In Insulation Foam
Eli is the neighborhood’s unofficial greeter. She’s often seen strolling around, visiting neighbors, and making his rounds before curling up for a cozy nap at home.
So when Eli vanished one day, it wasn’t just his owner who worried. Everyone in his Boston neighborhood felt his absence.
But nobody could have predicted the strange and messy situation in which he would eventually be discovered.
At first, Eli’s mom, Lea Perugini, assumed he was out on his usual neighborhood rounds. But as the hours passed with no sign of him, worry started to set in.
She grabbed her coat and began checking every spot she thought he might be hiding. That’s when she noticed a foam insulation truck parked at the house next door.
It had been there all day, but she didn’t think much of it. Until her phone rang.
Her roommate had just arrived home and spotted an animal rescue worker in the neighbor’s yard… holding a cat. A cat covered in foam. And that cat was Eli.
Lea sprinted home as fast as she could. When she saw him, she was stunned.
Eli looked like he’d been caught in the middle of a marshmallow explosion. His fur was completely encased in hardened spray foam.
It turned out he had wandered into the neighbor’s attic while they were spraying insulation. Curious as ever, he must have thought it was worth exploring until things took a bad turn.
Lea rushed him to the VEG Emergency Vet in Newton, calling ahead to warn them about the sticky situation.
Dr. Thamires Nunes was in the middle of other emergencies when she got the call, but nothing could have prepared her for the sight of Eli.
His entire face was covered in rock-hard foam, with just a small opening left for him to breathe. Somehow, he had managed to clear just enough space to survive.
The vet team immediately sedated him and started working, as Dr. Nunes shared in an interview:
“We felt the time crunch. We just started hacking along. And it was a team of five or six nurses. Everybody got some tool that they could find in the hospital to be able to do this. Most of it was like breaking pieces of foam. Others were shaving.”
They were also worried about whether the foam had reached his eyes or if he had swallowed any.
Dr. Nunes even contacted the ASPCA poison control hotline for advice.
Luckily, the foam wasn’t toxic, and Eli’s thick fur had acted like a barrier, keeping it from sticking to his skin. It clung to his coat instead, another stroke of luck.
By the time they finished, Eli’s body had been shaved. He looked like a sphynx.
In the months that followed, Eli’s soft orange coat gradually returned, restoring him to his proud, fluffy self.
Before long, he was back to his usual role as the little lion of the block, lounging on front steps and keeping a watchful eye over the neighborhood as if nothing had ever happened. Lea said it best:
“He’s like the neighborhood celebrity cat.”
And she’s right. After his close call, everyone seems to adore him even more than before.
