Cat escapes from tape-sealed box dumped over fence at pet clinic

SAN ANTONIO — A cat is recovering after he was placed in a suitcase and then sealed inside a cardboard box before being dumped outside a Texas animal clinic in stifling heat last month.

The orange-and-white feline, now nicknamed Lemon Squeeze, was tossed over a fence at the China Grove Veterinary Clinic in San Antonio on May 30, KENS-TV reported.

Surveillance video from the animal clinic showed a woman walk up to the gate of the facility after 7 p.m. CDT. After glancing around, the woman tosses the box over the fence and walks away, according to the television station.

“According to our cameras she spent the 100-degree weekend trying to escape her jail,” Elizabeth Noble, a veterinarian at the clinic, told KENS.

“We gotcha on camera, ma’am,” the clinic wrote in a Facebook post on June 5. “What’s in the duct-taped box being delivered after hours in 100-degree weather? A living, breathing, sweltering hot suffering cat.”

The post goes on to detail the cat’s struggle to escape. The box sat unnoticed for four days, but clinic officials believe that the cat was able to escape the second night after he was “delivered.”

Noble told KENS that Oakley, a rescue dog who lives at the clinic while awaiting adoption, began barking when he discovered the cat trying to hide in a side yard of the facility.

“It (box) wasn’t in clear sight,” Noble told the television station. “It was obscured by a pillar. On our cameras we saw it moving around for a couple of days. The cat was probably going through times of struggling and sleeping, and then she would probably regain consciousness and come to and try to escape again.

“I just can’t imagine someone putting an animal in that type of situation. “I can’t imagine going through what she did.”

Staff members brought the frightened cat inside and gave him food and water. Noble said that despite the harrowing conditions, Lemon Squeeze was doing well.

“We’ve had animals dumped many, many times in the past but this one is different,” Noble told KENS. “I just hope she realizes what she did and that she is sorry for it. There’s really no excuse.  I just don’t know how to deal with that kind of cruelty.”

The clinic was more emphatic in its Facebook post.

“We are not accepting special deliveries in this manner and your actions are illegal, ma’am,” the clinic wrote. “Be a responsible adult human and find a legal and humane way to handle your situation.”

Animal Care spokesperson Lisa Norwood told KENS that an investigation is ongoing.

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