The Miraculous Rescue of Jar Kitty

Janine Quinn feeds a group of feral cats that live in her trailer park near Greensburg, PA. On July 15, Janine spotted one of the cats with a peanut butter jar stuck on her head. Janine tried to catch the cat, but it got away.

Janine continued to look for “jar kitty” every day. She walked around her trailer park every night with a flashlight and prayed that she was still alive in the 90 degree heat. Janine even pulled the skirting off her own trailer and crawled underneath – but no luck.

As days turned into weeks, Janine began to despair. She worried that “jar kitty” might not be able to survive for such a long time without food and water. She continued to search on a daily basis hoping to find “jar kitty’s” body so she could have some sense of closure.

Finally on August 3, Janine received a phone call from her mother. “My mom called me and said ‘Janine get up here quick, your cat with the jar is here.’ I froze and then said no way. Well, she hung up, and I ran up with a can of sardines and a net.”

Janine saw the cat, but it also saw her and ran the other way. Janine put everything down and tried to call her, but “jar kitty” took off underneath another trailer.

“I decided that I was just going back to my house, and maybe she'd show up because she was heading in my direction last I saw her,” Janine said. “I just got back inside my house, and my sister calls from her cell phone and said ‘Janine, get out there. She's on your porch.’”

Janine went out on the porch and suddenly “jar kitty” was standing beside her. “So I paused for a second and thought... do I use the net or just grab her with my hands? She stopped right in front of me, and I just leaned over and grabbed her with my hands. She swung around and scratched me, but I didn’t feel it.”

Now that she had the cat, Janine needed to decide what to do next. “So I turned and opened my front door and threw her in - not hurting her, but it was that or she was going to get loose. She was freaking out in my house, and I went out to the shed and got the first cat carrier I could and came back in to find her on my kitchen table trying to get out the window.”

Janine grabbed the cat and put her in the carrier. “I just starting crying and thought to myself I can’t let the jar on her head. I have to get it off. So I got the Vaseline and a blanket, sat on the floor, opened the cage and grabbed her. I got Vaseline all over my fingertips and lubed the jar as much as I could. Then I tried pulling the jar off and couldn’t. So I got more Vaseline and lubed it again...tried pulling it off and couldn’t. Meanwhile she sat there patiently and waited, so I tried one more time and she actually stretched her neck and put her head up like she was trying to help me and the jar popped off.”

Once the jar was removed, Janine took the cat to Frankie’s Friends, a nonprofit cat rescue located in Tarentum, PA. According to Janine, the cat has wounds on its ears and face, which may be infected. The veterinarian at Frankie’s Friends is providing care for “jar kitty” and Janine has established a Chip-In to help offset the cost of this care.

My heart goes out to “jar kitty” who miraculously survived 20 days without food and water. Thank you to Janine Quinn for never giving up the search and to Frankie’s Friends for providing much-needed veterinary care.