One Tuesday in September, Lea Perugini noticed her 7-year-old orange tabby, Eli, hadn’t been around all day. While Eli was known to pop out for a quick breath of fresh air in his Boston neighborhood, he usually stuck close to home.
Starting to worry, Perugini set out to search the neighborhood. She noticed a foam insulation truck parked next door but didn’t think much of it — until she got a call from her roommate. A rescue worker had just shown up with a cat… and it was Eli.
“I ran a record-time mile back to my house,” Perugini said.
Somehow, Eli had wandered into the neighbor’s attic right as workers were spraying foam insulation. Never one to shy away from a new experience, Eli apparently treated it as an adventure — until he got completely covered in spray foam, which quickly hardened around his body and face.
Perugini rushed him to VEG in Newton, where Dr. Thamires Nunes and her emergency team sprang into action. Initially unsure how severe the case would be, the team was stunned to see Eli — encased in foam, with only a small space left for breathing.
“We were like, ‘Oh my God. This is a bit more than a little bit of spray foam,’” Dr. Nunes recalled.
After confirming that Eli could breathe and hadn’t ingested anything toxic, the team sedated him and got to work. Armed with razors, shears, and determination, five or six staff members shaved, chipped, and cracked away the hardened foam for two straight hours.
Thankfully, the foam had stuck mostly to Eli’s thick fur rather than his skin or eyes. Once free, he was completely shaved — resembling a sphynx cat — but otherwise unharmed.
“The second I brought him home, he acted like nothing happened,” Perugini said. “He was totally unfazed.”
Two months later, Eli’s fur had fully grown back. He’s once again the furry fixture of his Boston street, lounging on the steps and charming neighbors as the local celebrity he’s always been.
As for the emergency team, they won’t forget the day a foam-coated cat came through their doors. “No one had ever seen anything like what happened to Eli,” said Dr. Nunes. “It was unbelievable — and unforgettable.”