08 October,2016 11:19 AM IST | | Samiullah Khan
Nalasopara woman had to fight off her pet of over three years as it clawed and bit her; it took 5 firefighters over 2 hours to catch the cat and rescue the woman in Mumbai
Jhanvi Champanerkar somehow managed to lock Kau in the bathroom before the fire brigade arrived and took the cat away in a basket. Pics/Hanif Patel
Once bitten, twice shy - that is the state of mind of the Nalasopara woman who came home to a nasty shock yesterday, when one of her beloved cats suddenly turned on her in a feral attack, clawing and biting her hands and feet. Terrified, she no longer wants anything to do with cats and has decided to give away all her pets. Jhanvi Champanerkar (36) loved cats - her four cats were as much a part of the family as her husband and 13-year-old daughter. But that was until yesterday.
While her husband works at a firm in Goregaon, Jhanvi gives tuition classes for schoolkids at her home in Samay Pada, Nalasopara west. "Around 11:30 am, after finishing the tuition classes, I gave my cats boiled eggs as usual and then went to the bedroom for some work. Suddenly, one of the cats, Kau, started clawing my foot. I tried to catch her and push her away, but then she bit my hand. When I tried to push her away again, she bit my other hand too," said Jhanvi, recalling the nightmare.
Went into a frenzy
Jhanvi couldn't understand why this was happening; she had kept Kau for 3.5 years and had never seen her so aggressive. "Once Kau drew blood, she went into a frenzy. She began licking the blood and then her attack turned deadly," she recalled.
Jhanvi somehow managed to push the crazed cat into the bathroom and locked her in, before calling her husband and the fire brigade. But such was the cat's ferocity that five firefighters took over two hours to subdue and capture her.
"The cat was in a very aggressive mood and it was very difficult to catch her in the restricted space inside the bathroom. It took two hours of hard work to catch her in a blanket," said fireman Bhopesh Bhoir.
Kau has now been sent to the government-run veterinary hospital to determine what went wrong. Now, it looks like Jhanvi's other cats - Rosy, Lily and Lado - will have to find a new home as well, as she no longer trusts them. "I can't even imagine what would have happened if I hadn't managed to lock the cat in the bathroom. Now, I regret keeping cats at home," said Jhanvi, who has decided to contact animal activists so she can rehome the pets.
