One down, eight to go

February 1, 2015 8:24 AM

Cat cheats death, claws his way out of his grave days after burial. Bart, a Florida cat who was hit by a car, returned to his neighborhood after being presumed dead and buried. He is now being treated for several injuries but is expected to make a full recovery.
posted by Johnny Wallflower (54 comments total)

(A couple of gruesome images in the video.)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:27 AM on February 1, 2015

Somehow this is inspirational for me!
posted by oceanjesse at 8:30 AM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

9 lives joke goes here.
posted by MythMaker at 8:37 AM on February 1, 2015 [2 favorites]

Thanks for this heartwarming story. This is one of my irrational fears that haunts me every time I lose a pet. Is waiting until rigor sets in enough to be 100% sure?
posted by metaphorever at 8:38 AM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

I think we all know what's going on here, but let's let The Ramones explain it.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:40 AM on February 1, 2015 [17 favorites]

(9 lives joke went in the post title.)
posted by obfuscation at 8:40 AM on February 1, 2015 [7 favorites]

I'm glad you're okay now, kitty. But I won't be watching that video.
posted by Splunge at 8:42 AM on February 1, 2015 [8 favorites]

This is the best and worst thing I have ever heard.
posted by almostmanda at 8:43 AM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

Louis Creed: Has anyone ever buried a person up there?
Jud Crandall: Christ on his throne no. Who ever would?
posted by Fizz at 8:45 AM on February 1, 2015 [6 favorites]

Sometimes dead is better.
posted by Servo5678 at 8:46 AM on February 1, 2015 [3 favorites]

The cat came back the very next day
Thought he was a goner but the cat came back
'cuz he wouldn't stay away
posted by Hume at 8:47 AM on February 1, 2015 [18 favorites]

reinforces the importance of having a full Irish wake including a day to recover from the hangover whenever a beloved pet "dies"...
posted by ennui.bz at 8:47 AM on February 1, 2015 [2 favorites]

Same thing happened here to a local hamster during Easter, the best time of year to come back from the dead.
posted by vacapinta at 8:47 AM on February 1, 2015 [3 favorites]

Yerp. Time to bring back Safety Coffins.
posted by Mchelly at 8:51 AM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I read Pet Sematary. This does NOT end well.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 8:52 AM on February 1, 2015 [5 favorites]

Anybody else want to make the Pet Sematary reference? The article only does it twice already.
posted by Wolfdog at 8:52 AM on February 1, 2015 [3 favorites]

There can never be enough Pet Sematary references.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 8:56 AM on February 1, 2015 [19 favorites]

I own two British Blues, in small part due to Pet Sematary.

Sidenote: I might be wrong, but IIRC, nothing important ever happens in the titular Pet Sematary, right? Isn't the magical burial ground actually *past* the Pet Sematary? Sort of like how Fargo is Fargo, even though only a small part actually takes place in Fargo proper.
posted by Sticherbeast at 9:03 AM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

Try as you might to bury the Pet Sematary reference, it just keeps coming back, stronger and scarier.
posted by chavenet at 9:05 AM on February 1, 2015 [24 favorites]

Goddamn, is it too much to ask that people actually make sure their 'beloved' pets are dead before putting them in the ground? This is horrifying.
posted by zug at 9:10 AM on February 1, 2015 [6 favorites]

This made me cry and cry when I read it a few days ago.
posted by Stewriffic at 9:11 AM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

"To the last, I grapple with thee; From Hell's heart, I stab at thee; For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at ... Holy shit, did you just run the can opener? Meow, meow, MEOW MOTHERFUCKER..."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:14 AM on February 1, 2015 [25 favorites]

So I think we've already established that cats are adorably little furry murder machines.

How does a zombie cat differ? More cranky about getting its butt scratched maybe? And think of the upside; you could probably completely do away with the litterboxes.

Plus, you could then walk around your house, holding it up and making it dance to the Spider-man theme with the words "Zombie Cat, Zombie Cat, does whatever the undead can..."
posted by quin at 9:20 AM on February 1, 2015 [2 favorites]

I think we have a candidate for the new "Hang In There, Baby" poster.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:26 AM on February 1, 2015 [12 favorites]

SNL last night, after mentioning this: "In other news, woman finds cat who looks just like her dead cat."

(Srsly tho, thx Johnny Wallflower for the warning there's grossness in this vid. I shan't be watching. Already had to hear ick details re coworker's dog's death/burial this week.)
posted by NorthernLite at 9:36 AM on February 1, 2015 [2 favorites]

Cataleptic.
posted by adept256 at 9:44 AM on February 1, 2015

Anybody else want to make the Pet Sematary reference? The article only does it twice already.

That's one of my favorite Ramones songs, so when I saw the opportunity I jumped at it.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:49 AM on February 1, 2015

How does a zombie cat differ?

Smells of the dirt you buried it in.
posted by Artw at 9:52 AM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

/would still hug the zombie cat.

Dr. Boorstein is tempting fate with that hat though.
posted by Artw at 9:56 AM on February 1, 2015

I like on the video they say they rush Bart to a hospital. On a kitty litter, I presume.
posted by adept256 at 9:59 AM on February 1, 2015 [3 favorites]

Now I really feel bad about giving my last cat a Viking funeral.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:07 AM on February 1, 2015 [4 favorites]

I just realized that I do not know where to feel for a pulse on a cat.

I guess I could tell if the cat was breathing, but I'm not sure I could if the breathing was very very shallow.
posted by amtho at 10:10 AM on February 1, 2015

That cat ought to be renamed 'Rasputin'.
posted by easily confused at 10:27 AM on February 1, 2015 [3 favorites]

I cried the whole time I was reading this. Bart is a beautiful cat!
posted by Blitz at 10:35 AM on February 1, 2015

Hit by a car, buried alive, and then the cone of shame.
posted by zippy at 10:45 AM on February 1, 2015 [7 favorites]

Hutson wrapped Bart in a blanket and put him in a box until the next morning, when he started calling around to get the cat some help

Yeah, that's just what you do when your beloved pet crawls back to you from the grave, you put it to the side and give it a little more time to finish dying properly. Maybe this is part of why the Humane Society now says it won't give the cat back,
posted by dilettante at 10:47 AM on February 1, 2015 [10 favorites]

I had similar thoughts. Made me very sad and mad. "Call around for help"? You call the mother fucking emergency vet. It calls into question the whole "we thought it was dead." part of the story.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 10:56 AM on February 1, 2015 [10 favorites]

Relevant.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:58 AM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

Two thousand years from now, cats will kill each other over whether Bart preferred tuna or chicken, and whether it is permitted to eat either one on a Tuesday.
posted by Naberius at 10:58 AM on February 1, 2015 [21 favorites]

Yeah, I gotta say, I am not especially fond of these owners. I mean yeah, I get it, your cat got hit, you flipped out, you thought it was dead, you couldn't handle it, you punted on your obligations and asked someone else to bury it.

But... you punted on your obligations! In every sense! Not only did you not see your "dead" cat off properly, you didn't even make sure your cat was dead! I don't care how dead I thought that cat was, I'd have rushed it off to the emergency vet ASAP.

You bust in that door, you tell them "My cat got hit by a car, I think he's dead, I don't know what to do" and there will be people there who know what to do. You - and more importantly your cat will be taken care of.

Shit, if it was your kid who was hit by a car, you would have called 911, not just asked a neighbor to toss 'im in the crick and let nature take care of it, jesus.

Sorry, I'm just cranky about people who treat their pets like mere animals. They're family, damnit!
posted by Imperfect at 11:01 AM on February 1, 2015 [9 favorites]

Nevermind, I just read dilettante's link and it absolutely calls into question that they thought the car was dead. It sounds very much like they knew it was alive and didn't want to deal with it.

Fuck you, shitty pet owners. No, you do not get your discarded pet back. It's bad enough you're getting 7k over it.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 11:04 AM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

Well
posted by Mr. Yuck at 11:07 AM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

This had nothing to do with the above story other than I found it while trying to find something else related. But I can't stop laughing over it.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 11:14 AM on February 1, 2015 [4 favorites]

TheWhiteSkull: "Relevant."

How have I never seen this? Ia! Ia! Kitty fhtagn!
posted by Splunge at 11:30 AM on February 1, 2015

"Call around for help"? You call the mother fucking emergency vet. It calls into question the whole "we thought it was dead." part of the story.

if you read the Tampa Bay article from which the smirking inane linkbait wapo stub is derived from, you'd find that:

He reached out to veterinarians before getting in touch with the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, who offered to take care of Bart. Hutson didn't have much money for Bart's extensive surgeries, but Humane Society executive director Sherry Silk said the organization's Save-A-Pet Medical Fund will help Hutson pay for the procedures, which will cost more than $1,000.

posted by ennui.bz at 12:02 PM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

A lot of people in the US still have the mindset that pets are disposable. Not always because they are bad people, but if you grew up somewhere rural for example. I have a friend, not even forty yet, and when he was growing up his family still drowned kittens when the barn cats got to be too many. It wasn't that they didn't like cats, but the idea of spending money for medical care or spaying or whatever just wasn't what you did. It was a real adjustment for him moving out to California and people going "no, gotta get your guys spayed! gotta get the shots!" He'd certainly never think the same way today, of course.

And hell, even in California, we had people right next door who let their cats produce an endless chain of feralized kittens.
posted by tavella at 12:18 PM on February 1, 2015 [5 favorites]

The cat as portrayed by Uma Thurman.
posted by TedW at 2:41 PM on February 1, 2015

A YouTube video where the neighbours admit the cat was moving before burial?! What the actual fuck. I have no sympathy for the original owner. Thank god they're finding the cat a better owner who will keep him indoors.

Also, fuck whichever TV personality it was who joked that they didn't bury the cat deep enough.

In an ideal world, people would need a license in order to own pets. I've seen too many shitty owners near main streets whose indoor/outdoor cats breed like rabbits and get hit by cars on a weekly basis.
posted by quiet earth at 3:34 PM on February 1, 2015

Obligatory Mrs. Premise and Mrs. Conclusion Visit Jean-Paul Sartre (...and I'm surprised nobody has posted this yet):

"Four hours to bury the cat?!?"
"Yeah, wouldn't keep still, wriggling about, howling its head off...."
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 4:38 PM on February 1, 2015

I was surprised reading the humane society page posts, how many people were outraged that he allowed his cat outside. My experience is that cats prefer to be outside at least some of the time, and while it may be true they live longer indoors they probably also would live longer if they wore shoes and didn't lick themselves clean, but they are cats and don't buy into that.
As to the claim he waited overnight after the cat returned before getting help, if the cat returned after 5 pm it is very possible no vets were available. I once had a friend return from a lengthy trip to find that the neighbors who were supposed to look after her dog hadn't done a good job and the dog had caught pneumonia. Since she didn't get home till after dark she had to wait till the next day to get help for the dog, though unfortunately by then it was too late.
posted by Peregrine Pickle at 6:02 PM on February 1, 2015 [2 favorites]

Oh, bullshit, Peregrine Pickle. I realize not everyone has an emergency vet at the end of the street like I do but HE LIVES IN A MAJOR METROPOLITAN AREA, I am quite positive at least one emergency vet was open. In conclusion, fuck that guy and he doesn't deserve to get his cat back. Our vet is open til 1:00 a.m., there's a 24-hour one less than 15 minutes away, and I live in CLEVELAND.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 6:51 PM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

I would take a cat to the emergency vet if it needed it. However, when I first had my own cats, even though I was living in downtown Atlanta and had had pets all the time while growing up, I didn't know such a thing as an emergency vet existed. In fact, I didn't know about it until around 15 years after I got the kittens.
posted by amtho at 6:59 PM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

I lived in NYC and did not realize there were 24 hour vets for emergencies. I don't think it's crazy that he didn't think of that.
posted by corb at 8:10 PM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

Any time I've called a vet after hours their answering machine directs you to whichever veterinarian in town is acting as on-call emergency vet or to the actual open 24-hrs emergency vet. I assume that's a thing most places. Also, even if the family didn't have enough money, most places will work out a payment plan. They could have at least tried.
posted by backwords at 9:28 AM on February 2, 2015