If you're a cat owner, or have so much as played with a one, then you know that they are easily entertained by the least interesting of objects.
Paper bags, balls of aluminum foil, mystery string and unsuspecting birds can keep my kitty occupied for hours on end.
In fact, cats will go to great lengths to retrieve their toys. They may not have a reputation for being playful like dogs are, but they can certainly be just as enthusiastic.
Cats may have nine lives, but they are also known to die at the hands of curiosity. Unfortunately, this almost happened to one Imgur user and her cat Ollie.
Ollie's owner, who is a college student and goes by Ramphasto on Imgur, noticed her beloved cat behaving strangely and she immediately became concerned.
An emergency vet visit uncovered that Ollie's penchant for finding toys in strange places nearly cost him his life.
If you're a woman (or man) with long hair, chances are that you have a boat load of these disappearing around your house — even if you don't have a cat.
Hair ties always have a way of vanishing into thin air and are notoriously hard to keep track of.
In Ramphasto's case, her cat Ollie was the culprit.
She writes:
This is my baby Ollie. He’s the first pet I adopted as a young adult.
The moment I went to the shelter to find my first pet and I saw him I knew he was the only kitten I wanted.
He was a healthy and happy cat until one day he began throwing up everywhere and eventually just stopped moving.
It was at this point I knew I needed to get him to an emergency vet.
They did blood tests and x rays and found something lodged inside his stomach and intestines. It was some sort of hard mass.
They told me they needed to do an emergency surgery or he would die.
In fact, they also said he could die during surgery too. I was distraught. I cried and cried because the surgery about $4,000 and even if he had the surgery he could still die.
I didn't have this kind of money as a broke college student. I asked my family for money, but they couldn't help.
The vet told me about Care Credit so I immediately signed up and was approved. Ollie went into his surgery.
This is what they found in his stomach and intestines. [Expletive] hair ties, my hair ties!
He ate so many of them that they got lodged into his intestines and suffocated part of it so they had to cut the dead intestines and sew together the ends.
He did survive his surgery thank goodness. When they showed me this bag of hair ties I wanted to hit myself.
I felt so horrible for my ignorance. I would see him chewing up my hair ties and I would try to stop him, but I did not see or know he was actually swallowing them.
I did not know the severity of the situation.
The vet told me it's common for kittens and young cats to swallow weird things like hair ties or string.
They said they once did surgery on a cat who swallowed an entire balls worth of yarn.
I did not know cats did this and my cat paid dearly for my ignorance.
I wanted to tell this story because I’m not sure if other people know this about cats.
Ollie almost died. I don't want this to happen to other cats and cat owners.
NEVER LET YOUR CAT CHEW ON ANYTHING FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. THEY LOVE TO SWALLOW WEIRD [EXPLETIVE].
Ollie is alive and well!
After his surgery, it was like he knew his life had been on the line because he started sleeping in my arms every night and he started acting more as a big brother to our foster cat, Finn, pictured [with Ollie] above.
I hope this story was informative to some and helpful to others. I learned the hard way, but now I try to tell all cat owners I know so it doesn't happen to others.
Please SHARE this story with your friends and cat-lovers everywhere!
