Massachusetts Vets Stunned To Discover Who's Trapped Under All This Foam

Eli, the seven-year-old orange tabby, is a familiar face around his Boston neighborhood. He likes to wander around his home and greet the neighbors before heading back inside.

But one day, his mom, Lea Perugini, realized something was off. The house was quiet. Too quiet. Eli was nowhere around.

At first, she figured he was just out doing his usual neighborhood walks. But hours ticked by, and still, there was no sign of that orange fluffball. Lea started to worry.

She grabbed her coat and headed out, checking every familiar hiding spot. That’s when she noticed a big foam insulation truck parked next door.

It had been there all day, but she didn’t think much of it at first. She had bigger things on her mind, like where in the world her sweet, curious Eli had gone. Then came the call.

Her roommate had just gotten home and saw an animal rescue worker standing next door… holding a cat. A very, very foamy cat. That cat was Eli.

Lea didn’t even think, she just ran. Like, full-on sprinted down the street, racing back home. And when she got there, her jaw dropped.

cat trapped in foam — Source: WEG Newton

Eli looked like a marshmallow had exploded on him. His entire body was coated in hardened spray foam.

Poor Eli had somehow wandered into the neighbor’s attic while they were spraying foam insulation, and being the bold, fearless cat he is, he probably thought it was a cool place to explore. But the adventure took a bad turn really fast.

Lea scooped him up and rushed him to VEG Emergency Vet in Newton. She called ahead to let them know a very sticky situation was on the way.

Dr. Thamires Nunes was handling other emergency cases when she got the call, and she couldn’t quite picture what she was about to see. But then Eli arrived and jaws hit the floor.

It was worse than anyone imagined. Eli’s whole face was covered in the rock-hard foam, with only a tiny bubble left around his nose so he could breathe.

Somehow, he’d managed to clear just enough space to stay alive. That alone was a miracle.

The team gave Eli pain meds and sedated him so they could get to work. Nurses grabbed every tool they could find, whatever could help crack that foam, 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.”

One thing they were really worried about was whether the foam had gotten into Eli’s eyes or if he’d swallowed any.

Dr. Nunes even reached out to the ASPCA poison hotline just to be sure.

Thankfully, the foam wasn’t toxic, and because Eli had such thick, fluffy fur, it hadn’t stuck to his skin. It clung to his coat instead, another lucky break for the little guy.

By the time they were done, Eli was a completely different cat. He was totally shaved down and looked like a sphynx with those big eyes and a little pouty face.

Back home, he strutted around like nothing ever happened. He just wanted to hang out on the front steps again, watching the world go by like always.

It took a couple of months, but Eli’s fur slowly grew back in, soft and orange and perfect as ever.

These days, he’s back to being his old self: the Boston block’s fluffy little lion. His mom shared: