Kitten Survives Six Weeks Trapped In Army Tank

by Kimberly Coleman

An Iraqi kitten recently stowed away in a British army tank and miraculously survived a gruelling six-week journey from Iraq to London before she was discovered by British troops at Southampton upon the tank's return to the UK.

Rescuers said the kitten, later named Gracie, was extremely lucky to be alive, as she was very young and had had almost no access to food or water for six weeks.

"She was just skin and bone when she arrived, it is amazing she survived." commented Faith Grant, a kitten handler.

Gracie's rescuers speculate that she survived by eating the bugs that found their way into the tank and lapping the condensation from the tank. Since being rescued in Southampton, Gracie has been fed milk through a syringe and will gradually be weaned onto soft food.

Gracie is not the first kitten to survive an ordeal by licking moisture from the walls of his or her enclosure. In April 2002 a tabby kitten named Tigger was buried under a landslide for a month.

Tigger survived in the same way as Gracie. Eventually he lost so much weight that he was able to squeeze his small frame through a crack in a wall and was found by the apartment building's builder Derek Hope, who took him home.

Despite her inauspicious beginning, Gracie has a lot of energy and is described as a typical kitten. Her energy and kitten antics have already earned her the nickname "the kitten of mass destruction".

Gracie is now waiting in a commercial quarantine cattery until January, in compliance with the stringent quarantine regulations laid down by British law. Under Britain's new 'Pet Travel Scheme', animals from certain specified countries may now enter the UK without quarantine provided they have complied with a strict set of microchipping and vaccination procedures which must be started seven months in advance.

© 2003 Animal News Center, Inc.