No, this is not a photoshopped image. This is a cat with so much matted hair, she looks like she is wearing dreadlocks. How does such a thing happen?
Hidey — who got her name because she frequently hid from her elderly owner — apparently hid one too many times. When Hidey's owner was taken to a nursing home, the kitty was taken to the local animal shelter. When the staff saw her, they were shocked and heartbroken.
According to the shelter staff, Hidey's fur was matted in sections six to eight inches in length with feces and other debris tangled in each section. It wasn't that the kitty's fur grew eight inches long, it's that her hair began to get matted and then any hair that she shed tangled within the matted hair to make the long, filthy knots.
It took the shelter staff several hours to shave off two pounds of Hidey's matted fur. They sedated her for the procedure to minimize her stress and to make her as comfortable as possible.
Hidey looks like a new cat after her makeover. (Photo: Animal Rescue League Shelter & Wildlife Center/Facebook)
Needless to say, Hidey looks like a brand new cat after her trim. And she has been staying with a relative of her elderly owner since leaving the hospital.
"She's been hiding under the bed for the last couple of days," Paul Russel told The Dodo. "I've been dragging her out, and holding her, and she purrs a lot. The last couple of days, she's climbed out from under the bed on her own and into a cat bed I have. So she's starting to work her way to see people more."
No doubt she is feeling happier and healthier, too.
