Kitten swallows TV aerial

Alphie required emergency surgery when the metal antenna became lodged in his oesophagus and stomach.

Owner Vanessa Waite, 36, of Parson Cross, Sheffield, had only owned the young tabby kitten for a few days when he started his love affair with the TV.

He would sit for a long time being mesmerised by the moving pictures on the screen, but she had no idea he had also developed an unhealthy obsession with the aerial, she said.

“One night I heard a loud bang and went upstairs to investigate but I assumed Alphie had fallen off the window sill. He seemed okay and was just hiding under the bed.”

“However, during the night he was being sick so the next morning I took him to the PDSA. It wasn’t until later that I realised that one of the aerial antennas was missing from my TV.”

The aerial would have proved fatal if it remained inside him, so surgeons removed it through the kitten’s stomach