Kitten wandering around with its head stuck in jar is rescued — and gets fitting name

A young kitten was spotted roaming around Massachusetts with a peculiar piece of headwear, according to the Animal Rescue League of Boston (ARL), an animal shelter.

A Massachusetts resident phoned Fall River Animal Control during the week of Oct. 7 after noticing a 6-month-old tabby kitten with a glass bowl stuck on its head, according to a release from the ARL.

Rescuers with ARL were dispatched to Fall River, a small coastal city, where they found the kitten wandering on the road. A rescuer lured the kitten’s siblings into a drop trap, and the kitten clad in headgear soon followed, according to the release.

Rescuers were then able to remove the glass jar and transported the kitten to a nearby adoption center. The kitten was given vaccines, spayed and determined to be healthy, according to the release. She was then appropriately named Buzz Lightyear after the well-known, helmet-wearing “Toy Story” character.

Buzz is not yet up for adoption as she is still adjusting to her new surroundings and learning to trust people, according to the ARL.

While rescuing Buzz, ARL discovered a “previously unknown cat colony” and has started the process of trapping some of its cats, according to the release.

There are estimated to be between 50 and 70 million feral cats in the United States, compared with about 94 million registered pet cats as of 2017 data, according to the Bard Center for Environmental Policy.

Nearly 2 million cats in shelters and other animal control facilities across the country are euthanized every year, according to the Humane Society.

The ARL said it hopes to “provide medical treatment, spay/neuter surgery, and assess behavior to possibly place other cats from the colony into loving homes.”

This story was originally published October 12, 2022 at 5:56 PM with the headline "Kitten wandering around with its head stuck in jar is rescued — and gets fitting name."