County footballer helps rescue cat impaled on barbed wire

A Galway footballer was one of four young men who saved the life of a cat which had become badly entangled in barbed wire.

Seán Fitzgerald, a member of the Galway senior football panel and Bearna GAA, and his three friends, brothers Caoimhín and Fíonán Conway, and Antoine Lannegrand, came to the cat’s rescue at Cregboy last Wednesday afternoon.

Tabby cat, Willow, had been missing for 20 days when the quartet found her by chance, tangled in barbed wire outside Claregalway – 25 kilometres from her home in Tuam – and on her first birthday!

After dramatically freeing her from the barbed wire – a delicate operation that took more than 25 minutes – they rushed Willow by car to Briarhill Veterinary Clinic.

She required urgent care to remove a long piece of wire that had become embedded in her stomach and risked causing internal damage.

Seán, from Furbo, described to The Connacht Tribune the dramatic discovery and rescue of the feline, which occurred while he was enjoying a game of pitch and putt.

“I’ve three cats at home, so I can tell whether a cat is in distress or whether it’s normal cat noises,” he said.

Read the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now – or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.