Cat rescued in Michigan was frozen to the ground, ‘barely alive’

Jenay Chartier was driving in what is to be a new subdivision north of Detroit when she spotted something black in the middle of a cul-de-sac.

She wondered whether someone threw out trash, so she parked her work truck to check it out.

“Before I opened my door, I’m like ‘Oh, my God, it’s a cat!” recalled the soil erosion officer with Macomb County Public Works. “Oh my God, and (she’s) like, like barely alive. … So I go and look at her and I was like ‘Oh, my God, she’s frozen.’ “

Chartier said she found Freezy’s back paws, a front paw and tail stuck to snow and ice Feb. 3 in Chesterfield Township. Freezy could move only one paw.

Chartier put on gloves, grabbed towels she keeps in her truck and wrapped Freezy up amid the snow and ice. She then grabbed water and put it on the cat’s paws and tail to free her. She felt bad about using water in such cold conditions, but something like a shovel would have damaged the cat’s legs.

After freeing her, Chartier wrapped Freezy up and placed her in a milk crate on the front passenger floor while she continued her work day.

No microchip, no collar

On her lunch hour, Chartier went to Target and got Freezy a can of cat food, which the cat gobbled down while sitting in Chartier’s lap. Chartier debated whether she should return to the office and take the rest of the day as a personal day to care for Freezy, but she said the cat was being good staying in the milk crate.

She kept Freezy in the warm truck as she finished her day, then took her into the office when she returned for her last hour of work. A colleague checked Freezy’s fur for fleas and mites and found none.

“She was purring and everything for us,” Chartier said.

Chartier took Freezy to a veterinarian the next day. The long-haired cat “with maybe two or three white hairs” in the middle of her chest is estimated be 1 to 2 years old. Her gums appeared good, some blood work was done, and she was given some electrolytes, Chartier said.