Cat survives for five weeks home alone in house after owner sent to prison

A cat miraculously survived after being left home alone for five weeks while her owner was in jail. Four-year-old Luna lived off scavenged food including dried pasta and drank water from a dripping tap after her owner was remanded in custody. She was saved after a warden at Canada's Durham Prison overheard an inmate complaining about his cat being left in his rented home by herself. The RSPCA were alerted and officers raced to the property in Middlesbrough and gained access from the landlord. They found Luna hiding under piles of rubbish with a crisp packet on her head. Shocking pictures show she was covered in dirt and was seriously underweight while the house was covered in filth, rubbish and excrement. She was taken to an RSPCA centre following her rescue in March. Luna has since made a full recovery and has been rehomed in time for Christmas. RSPCA inspector Garry Palmer said: “It was absolutely filthy inside with signs of human excrement on the floor. “We found Luna curled up, stuck under a chair in a void with a crisp packet on her head. “She’d survived by drinking from a tap which was dripping in the kitchen sink and possibly water from the toilet. “It looked like she’d eaten packets of dried pasta and other food which she’d scavenged from a cupboard. “When we got in and started looking around I really did think we were going to find her dead body, so it was incredible to find Luna alive after so many weeks. “Surprisingly, despite the fact she’d been fending for herself for so long, her condition was okay and she soon put on weight once she started receiving the right care. “If it hadn’t been for the prison warden passing the information on to us and the tap dripping in the kitchen she wouldn’t have got out of that house alive, so in that sense she was a very ‘lucky’ cat. “I’m so pleased to see her happy and settled in a new home after what she went through.” Her new owner spotted Luna on the RSPCA Great Ayton Animal Centre’s website after losing her previous cat through ill health. New owner Marian said: “It said she was being overlooked and was now the longest staying cat so I knew I had to adopt her. “When I heard about what had happened it seemed even more of a reason to give her a good home. “I’m just so happy to have adopted Luna so she can have the best life ever. “She loves cuddling up next to me, although she normally doesn’t sit still for very long. “She’s a strong willed character and knows exactly what she wants. I think that’s probably why she survived on her own for as long as she did, she really wanted to live. “It upsets me when I think about her past and how long she’d been on her own in those terrible conditions but she’s safe now and being loved and spoiled rotten.”