Sinbad: a mog with catitude

Sinbad the million dollar cat

JOHN SELKIRK/The Dominion Post

BIG TROUBLE: Sinbad's misadventures have caused him to have his stomach pumped, have four pins put in his pelvis and to have a fur transplant.

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A survivor of two car accidents, gangrene and poisoning, Sinbad the cat has already used up most of his nine lives.

The 12-year-old pet, who weighs in at a substantial nine kilograms, lost his tail and has four pins holding his pelvis together after being hit by cars in 2000 and again in 2003.

Later he developed gangrene on the lower half on his body and was given a fur transplant.

Owner Sonia McConnachie explains: "They basically took the top part of his skin around his shoulder blades, and stretched it down and stitched it under his bum."

Sinbad has also survived a bout of poisoning after eating weedkiller.

"One day he got stuck in the garage. When I went to go to work I noticed he was wandering around the garage a bit wobbly. I realised he had sucked the weedkiller out of the spray pack," Ms Connachie says.

"Another trip to A&E for his stomach to be pumped, and he had burnt lips as well."

Because he has no tail, Sinbad's balance is off. "He tried to lick out of the toilet bowl one day and overbalanced and fell in I heard him scrabbling and rushed in and had to pull him out by his legs."

The pins in his back legs also cause Sinbad trouble. He can climb, but can't get down."I became known as the ladder lady," Ms Connachie, director of an Auckland marketing agency, says. "Many a neighbour was surprised by me in the early hours of the morning climbing up onto their roof by ladder to rescue Sinbad."

Eating has been a constant problem for this mammoth mog you need only look at his middle-age spread to realise that.

"He used to sit on the letterbox and wish everyone a good day as people walked past to go to work, but he got so big the letterbox collapsed. The new one has been made purposefully smaller so that his bum won't fit on it."

Ms Connachie says her pet has cost more money in vets' bills than she cares to tally up. But to her, Sinbad is priceless.

- © Fairfax NZ News