Bonny Is Rescued at the Last Minute after Spending Seven Weeks Entombed Underneath a Bathtub

"Bonny bestand nur noch aus Fell und Knochen, war total abgemagert -- wirkte wie im Koma."
-- Monika Hoppert

A broken water pipe in an apartment building in Stadthagen, Niedersachsen nearly cost a black Persian mix named Bonny her life earlier this summer after plumbers inadvertently entombed her underneath a neighbor's bathtub.

Because of extensive water damage caused by the broken pipe, Bonny's caretaker, Monika Hoppert, had left the door to her apartment open so as to allow her rooms to dry out. That provided the opportunity for Bonny to scamper through the open door and thus enter the quarters of neighbors Renate and Erich Herrmann who were having repairs made to their lieu. The hustle and bustle, loud noises, and confusion churned up by the workmen frightened her and she sought sanctuary underneath the tub. The plumbers then proceeded to tile over the floor above her.

Her distraught but clueless owner looked high and low for her but in vain. "Uberall habe ich meine Katze gesucht, bin sogar nachts raus auf die Strasse und habe ihren Namen gerufen," Hoppert told the Schaumburger Nachrichten of Rinteln on August 25th. (See "Sieben Wochen eingemauert.")

Seven weeks later in mid-August, Frau Herrmann heard Bonny meowing and scratching while she was taking a shower one morning and immediately contacted Hoppert. Plumbers were summoned and a half-dead Bonny was freed from her premature grave with not a minute to spare.

Because she had been forced to go without sustenance for such a long time her weight had plummeted from thirteen pounds to a little more than four. She was in fact so weak that she did not have sufficient strength left in order to hold up her tiny head, let alone to stand and walk.

"Bonny bestand nur noch aus Fell und Knochen, war total abgemagert -- wirkte wie im Koma," is how Hoppert described her condition to the Schaumburger Nachrichten in the article cited supra.

Still reeling from the shock of discovering her beloved cat to be still alive after all of this time, Huppert then rushed Bonny to a local veterinarian who gave her perhaps an even bigger jolt by refusing to help. Instead, all he wanted to do was to kill Bonny.

Being the devout ailurophile that she is, Hoppert certainly was not about to sit still for any of that tosh. "Meine Katze hat so um ihr Leben gekampft, da konnte ich sie doch jetzt nicht einschlafern lassen," she later told the Schaumburger Nachrichten on August 27th. (See "Katze Bonny wird zum Medienstar.")

Determined that Bonny was going to live, she then took the cat home and nursed it back to health by her lonesome. "In den ersten Tagen musste ich meine geliebte Katze wie ein Baby pflegen, habe sie gefuttert und gewaschen," she told the Schaumburger Nachrichten in the August 25th article cited supra.

Thanks to her ministrations, the green-eyed moggy is now on the mend and is expected to make a full recovery. (See photo above of the happy duo.)

It is theorized that Bonny survived by lapping up water that had leaked from the bathtub. Ironically, she then would be indebted to faulty plumbing for both her miseries and salvation.

As soon as Bonny's ordeal became public, both she and Hoppert were set upon by the print and broadcast media without surcease. Fan mail also poured in from all over Deutschland and Holland. (See Schaumburger Nachrichten, September 1, 2008, "Gunther Jauch steht auf Bonny.")

In late October of last year, a ten-year-old tuxedo named Emmy from Torquay in Devon was accidentally locked inside a wooden storage shed on the property of a neighbor for nine-weeks. (See Cat Defender post of January 23, 2008 entitled "Emmy Survives Being Locked in an Outdoor Storage Shed for Nine Weeks Without Either Food or Water.")

Like Bonny, she was near death when discovered and had relied upon condensation which had collected on the windows in order to survive. (See photo above.)

Since her owners had decided to move into another house, they dumped poor Emmy at a shelter immediately after her rescue. Her traumatic experience has left her with an understandable fear of tight places and of being left alone. She also has lost, at least temporarily, either the ability or inclination to jump.

She had been staying at Torbay Blue Cross Animal Center in Watcombe but the organization's website no longer lists her as being available for adoption. She therefore could have found a new home or the shelter could have killed her. It is extremely difficult to get shelters and veterinarians to release such information to the public.

As for Bonny, hopefully she will not suffer any lingering physical or psychological disabilities as the result of her experience. The fact that she has a loving owner gives her a big advantage over Emmy.

Perhaps more importantly, Bonny need not have suffered at all if Hoppert, the Herrmanns, and the plumbers had been more attentive. Cats are territorial and lovers of routine and consequently any changes in their environment should raise red flags, especially in cases of their disappearance.

That which holds true for plumbers, construction workers, traveling salesmen, and other strangers that happen to venture onto their turfs is equally applicable to packages, furniture, and modes of conveyance. When their homes are invaded cats have a tendency to secret themselves away in convenient nooks and crannies and this quite often leads to disastrous consequences. (See Cat Defender post of July 21, 2008 entitled "Janosch Survives Being Sent Through the Post from Bayern to the Rhineland.")

Owners who will take it upon themselves to closely scrutinize any alternations, no matter how large or small, in their cats' environment can save themselves considerable worry and grief and, more importantly, the lives of their companions. In this case, Hoppert should have checked first with her neighbors and then everywhere the plumbers had been at work.

Finally, as far as the unidentified veterinarian who refused to treat Bonny is concerned, he is a disgrace to his profession and should be stripped of his license to practice. Veterinarians should be held to the same exacting standards of professional conduct as are MDs and that entails at the very least that they employ their services in order to save lives, not shorten them.

Photos: Denis Lochte of the Schaumburger Nachrichten (Bonny and Hoppert) and Torbay Blue Cross (Emmy).