Waikato cat thaws out after freezer ordeal

A south Waikato family's cat has survived 19 hours in a freezer.

The cat, Krillen, was found by owner Sarah Crombie, 27, lying stiff and semi-conscious on a bag of dog food when she went to get a loaf of bread out of the freezer.

"I was looking in there and I heard this funny noise," the Te Kuiti mother-of-two told the Herald on Sunday .

"It was sort of a 'miaow' but he was so half-frozen he couldn't get the noise out properly, poor thing. So I look down and I see this grey fluffy thing sitting on top of the bag of dog food under a rack."

Her partner Sid Sisson had shut the top-loading freezer the night before, not realising the cat was inside.

Fortunately, Mr Sisson, 28, knew it was essential to raise the body temperature of hypothermia sufferers slowly. So he put the cat under his shirt and got into bed with him.

The dairy farmer kept Krillen under blankets and against his bare chest for three hours until he thawed out.

Dr Nick Cave, senior lecturer at Massey University's Veterinary Teaching Hospital, said the cat's survival was impressive and probably down to Mr Sisson warming him up slowly.

- NZPA