A cat in Middletown, Delaware named Lewes was given this month’s title.
A two year old cat named Lewes, who is owned by the Racelis family in Middletown, Delaware has now earned a rather unique form of recognition, as his pet insurance company named his circumstance as having the “Most Unusual Claim of the Month” after he was required to undergo an emergency surgery in order to extract a foam dart out of his small intestine.
The insurer hands the title out to the oddest claim that is made each month.
The Racelis family’s pet insurance provider chose their cat for the event that occurred in December 2013, when Lewes decided that his dog like, quirky personality would result in an emergency procedure to remove the toy from his digestive tract. Alicia Racelis explained that “Sometimes, we let our three boys open a few Christmas gifts early and this last year one of those gifts happened to be some Nerf dart guns.”
Lewes’s ingestion of one of the Nerf darts soon ended up in a rather strange pet insurance claim.
Mrs. Racelis went on to explain that “While the boys were playing, Lewes began chasing the darts, but we didn’t really think anything of it, because he chases things all the time.” As it turned out, while Lewes was playing his dog like game of fetch, he somehow managed to swallow a rather large piece of one of the darts, which are made out of a soft foam.
It became clear to the family that something wasn’t right by the next day, when their beloved furry friend started to refuse his food. Soon, his behavior also began changing and he started to keep away from members of the family. As a very social pet, it was quite strange for him to distance himself from people. Mrs. Racelis recalled that she was afraid that “he was saying goodbye.”
Following an X-ray at the Atlantic Veterinary Center, by Dr. John Weiher, it was rapidly determined that surgery would be immediately required in order to remove the piece of foam from the cat’s small intestine. The Veterinary Pet Insurance policy that the family had for the cat paid for the full cost of the $1,800 surgery.
