Exeter bin crews pay for stray cat’s treatment after seagull attack

Published: 4 July 2023

Caring Exeter bin crews and recycling staff have rescued an injured stray cat that lives between their depots on Exton Road - with the bin crews raising £100 for her treatment.

Pudding, as she has been named by Exeter City Council staff, adopted the two adjacent depots as her shared home a few years ago.

She sleeps in the Devon County Council site at night, in a shelter issued by the Cats Protection Society to keep her warm.

She also has a shelter outside Exeter City Council’s Oakwood House office next door and enjoys a great deal of fuss from the bin crews and office staff, who feed and care for her every day.

On Monday she was attacked by seagulls and fled across the road, narrowly avoiding being hit by a bus. Recycling centre staff found her a while later, hiding in her shelter and clearly in a great deal of pain.

They managed to keep her safe until the Cats Protection Society could pick her up to assess her injuries. She was limping badly and had a nasty cut on her shoulder. It was feared she had broken her leg.

Staff from both depots spent an anxious day on Monday waiting for news, until at last receiving word that she had sustained no more than a flesh wound and had been stitched up and given antibiotics.

The Cats Protection Society said she was clearly a happy cat and could be returned to her shared Exton Road family. On Tuesday morning she was back sleeping in her box, recovering from her ordeal.

The City Council’s bin crews immediately set up a collection pot to pay for Pudding’s £100 treatment cost. It was fully funded by 9am that morning, with crews and office staff all chipping in.

Everyone in Pudding’s Exton Road family wants to express a huge thank you to the Cats Protection Society for helping her through her ordeal.