Cat rescued in Chesterfield Twp. was frozen to the ground, 'barely alive'
Jenay Chartier was driving in what is to be a new subdivision in Chesterfield Township when she spotted something black in the middle of a cul-de-sac.
She wondered whether someone threw out trash, so she parked her work truck to check it out.
“Before I opened my door, I'm like 'Oh, my God, it’s a cat!” recalled the soil erosion officer with Macomb County Public Works. “Oh my God, and (she’s) like, like barely alive. ... So I go and look at her and I was like 'Oh, my God, she's frozen.' "
Chartier said she found Freezy’s back two paws, a front paw and tail stuck to snow and ice Feb. 3. Freezy could move only one paw.
Water, some coats, a milk crate and heat
Chartier put on gloves, grabbed towels she keeps in her truck and wrapped Freezy on the snow and ice. She then grabbed water and put it on the cat’s paws and tail to free her. She felt badly about using water in such cold conditions, but something like a shovel would have damaged Freezy's legs.
Chartier freed Freezy, wrapped her in extra coats she keeps in the truck and placed her in a milk crate she uses to hold boots. She put the crate on the front passenger floor.
On her lunch hour, Chartier went to Target and got Freezy a can of cat food, which the cat gobbled down while sitting in Chartier's lap in the truck. Chartier debated whether she should return to the office and take the rest of the day as a personal day to care for Freezy, but she said the cat was being good staying in the milk crate. She didn’t think her bosses would mind.
She kept Freezy in the warm truck as she finished her day, then took her into the office when she returned for her last hour of work. A colleague checked Freezy's fur for fleas and mites and found none, and “she was purring and everything for us,” Chartier said.
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'Very proud of Jenay'
Chartier, who has horses, called her friend, a veterinarian for large animals, who recommended she take Freezy to be examined and keep her separated from Chartier's 18-year-old cat and two dogs, ages 5 and 13, at home.
Chartier took Freezy to a veterinarian the next day. The long-haired cat “with maybe two or three white hairs” in the middle of her chest is estimated be 1 to 2 years old. Her gums appeared good, some blood work was done, and she was given some electrolytes, Chartier said. Freezy didn't have a microchip and wasn’t found wearing a collar. Freezy has a couple of small bald spots as a little of her fur remained stuck to the ice and snow.
Chartier is keeping Freezy in the bathroom of a spare bedroom at her home. Each day, she said Friday, Freezy seems to be slowly coming around, eating well and playing with some toys.
Chartier doesn’t know how or why Freezy was there — and stuck. She probably is feral or could have been a barn or garage cat that didn’t go back home. Maybe, she said, someone dumped her in the cul-de-sac, which does not have homes yet.
Chartier plans to keep Freezy. She has driven back to the subdivision to see whether any other wild cats are there. She hasn’t spotted any.
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Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller shared Chartier and Freezy's story and photos on her Facebook page. As of Friday afternoon, the post had drawn more than 1,000 likes and nearly 230 comments.
“We’re very proud of Jenay. There’s little doubt whether the cat would have survived much longer on the coldest day of the season,” said Miller, who reminded dog and cat owners to keep their pets inside during cold weather.
It was 10 degrees about the time Freezy was found, with winds at 15 mph, gusting to about 20 mph, meaning the windchill was minus 8 degrees at nearby Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison Township, said Alex Manion, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in White Lake.
Manion said weather conditions at that time would have been “extremely uncomfortable for both us and pets.”
'Maybe it's meant to be'
“You can’t leave an animal there like that, no, not ever,” Chartier said.
She said she believes everything happens for a reason. Chartier was supposed to be off work Feb. 3, out of town in Texas. But her trip was canceled, and she ended up working — and finding Freezy, which her husband suggested calling Freezepop.
“Maybe it’s just meant to be,” Chartier said of Freezy. “I just want her to have a great life.”
Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 'Oh, my God, it's a cat' — with its paws frozen to the road
