Cat survives with eight lives left after being nearly blinded by boiling water

It is thought the two-year-old tabby suffered injuries which left her eyes sealed shut after boiling water was thrown over her.

She was rescued by John Longley who found her under one of the cars at the rental firm where he works.

Mr Longley, 53, and his wife Diane, 50, breed exotic Maine Coon cats. They could not bear to leave her at the vets after an operation to save her for fear she might not be rehomed.

So instead they have taken the cat, which they have called Kylie, into their Doncaster home, to share it with 22 other cats, three dogs and a 14-year-old daughter.

Mrs Longley, a housewife and mother-of-two, said: “John feeds a stray cat at work so when he went to feed it one day he noticed there was another cat under a car.

“We don’t know how she got there because her eyes were completely sealed shut. At that point he couldn’t see what was wrong with her and I feared it might be cat flu. He managed to catch her in a box and take her to the vets.”

When she arrived at Abbey Vets in Barnsley it became obvious that the cat’s appalling injuries were actually serious scalds.

Mrs Longley said they decided to call her Kylie after the Australian singer Kylie Minogue, whose first number one was I Should Be So Lucky.

Veterinary nurse Melanie Spencer-Marshall said: “She had dying skin across her whole face and couldn’t see anything.

“Judging by the condition of the tissue, she must have been in that state for at least several days so it’s a miracle she wasn’t run over or attacked by other animals.”

Kylie is now getting used to her new home where she has her own bed in the spare room.

Mrs Longley said: “She’s settling in well and some of her fur is starting to grow back.

“She seems really happy when you consider what she has been through. Nobody knows what exactly happened to her but it’s clear someone must have thrown boiling water over her.”