Cat spent week stuck in air conditioner

Australian animal rescue workers say a badly malnourished cat found stuck inside an air conditioning unit in Brisbane's south may have been there for nearly a week. The adult tabby was found with burns to her ears and drag injuries and was extremely dehydrated when she was freed from an air conditioner fixed to a wall at a unit in Coorparoo yesterday.

The unit owner heard "strange" scratching noises coming from the aging device on Sunday but dismissed it as a rat infestation. "When we got out there we saw this very old air-con unit built in the 1970's, a real dinosaur of a thing," RSPCA ambulance officer Katrina Farmer said today.

"We thought we might be dealing with rats at first, the smell of urine was so pungent."



Rescue workers said the cat had been trapped inside by a turbine for at least five days and could only be freed when the air conditioner was ripped off the wall. She has since been nicknamed Daikin.

"She is extremely dehydrated, frightened, and skinny which is no wonder after being stuck in there for so long," RSPCA senior veterinarian Vicky Lomax said. Rescuers have absolutely no idea how Daikin managed to get inside the air conditioning unit.

"It has really surprised us. Cats are known to squeeze into strange places, but this was a very, very tight space." Daikin has undergone surgery today while the animal charity begins the search for her owners.