Winter was left behind inside a carrier in the snow

Winter, is a one-year-old gray tabby that was left abandoned in a carrier, out in the snow, near an animal shelter in Illinoils.

Although it was mostly covered in snow, someone spotted the carrier while driving up the shelter’s driveway to go to work.

The bright pink container was lodged in the snow, with more of the cold stuff spilling in through the front of the carrier.

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Her rescuer remembers meeting Winter for the first time: “I thought, ‘there’s definitely not a cat in here’ … so I grabbed the carrier, and next thing I know I saw an ear,” he said.

Even though Winter had likely spent the night in frigid temperatures, packed in snow, she still acted sweetly while being handled by the vets.

Images by HAPPY TAILS Animal Shelter

Winter is now warm, fed and doing well aside from an itchy case of flea allergy dermatitis, but a few more hours outside and her fate could’ve been much different.

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“She was buried alive, basically.” her vet says. He believes the cat was abandoned in the snow, and then later was covered in more snow when a plow came by to clear the roads and driveways in the area.

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The shelter staff turned their attention to finding the person who abandoned Winter in such cruel conditions and they offered a $1,000 reward — which they raised through Facebook donations — to anyone who could provide information that led to the arrest and prosecution of whoever left Winter behind.

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