SOMERSET COUNTY, NJ – Camper is a lucky cat as he is now warm, being fed, and recovering from being essentially left for dead in a snowbank in Manville.
A Good Samaritan found the elderly cat, who weighed only 3 pounds, in a snowbank on Camplain Road in Manville last Saturday, said Brian Bradshaw, director of the Somerset regional animal shelter.
“He was in really bad shape. He couldn’t walk. He looked like he was dead,” Bradshaw said. “His ears were infected, his skin was infected.”
The shelter immediately took the cat to a veterinarian and found that it was over 10 years old.
“He was so cold he couldn’t eat. We had to warm him up to feed him,” said Bradshaw.
Bradshaw suspects that the cat belonged to someone at some point because he is very friendly.
“It looks like he’s been out there for a while. Maybe someone lost him and stopped looking for him,” Bradshaw said.
The shelter called him Camper because he appeared to be “camping out” for a while and also because he was found on Camplain Lane.
Six days later, campers are doing much better. He eats and recovers. As soon as he is well enough, he will be put up for adoption.
Bradshaw would like to remind residents to “take care of your pets, especially in cold weather. If you see pets outside, please call Pet Control and make sure your own pets don’t come out.”
Pet owners are also encouraged to have their cats and dogs microchipped with a collar.
Bradshaw noted that the shelter recently took in 35 cats from multiple locations over the past week, including an Ocean County hoarding incident.
The shelter, a non-profit organization, always needs donations to take care of campers and other pets in the shelter.
Community members can contribute by purchasing supplies from the shelter’s Amazon wish list or by making a monetary donation at srasnj.org/donate.
The shelter is located at 100 Commons Way in Bridgewater.
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