TAMPA, Fla. — Bart the cat was hit by a car, buried and seemingly crawled back from the dead.
Earlier this month, a car hit the 1½-year-old cat in Tampa. Bart’s owner was so distraught, he couldn’t stand the thought of burying him, so he asked neighbor to dig a shallow grave.
Five days later, on Jan. 21, a matted and injured Bart emerged, meowing for food.
“At first it blew me away,” said Dusty Albritton, the neighbor who buried Bart. “All I knew was this cat was dead and Pet Sematary is real.’
Bart had a broken jaw, a ruptured eye and a torn-up face. He was dehydrated and hungry, but alive.
Owner Ellis Hutson didn’t know what to do.
“It was unbelievable,” he told The Tampa Bay Times. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
Hutson got in touch with the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, which through the Save-A-Pet Medical Fund will help cover the costs of Bart’s care. On Tuesday, the cat underwent surgery to remove an eye, wire his jaw shut and insert a feeding tube.