Nicole Paling made the horrifying discovery Tuesday night when she opened a duffel bag out front of the Mountainside Animal Clinic in Burlington.

“Looked inside and all I can see was all the duct tape all over her face.”

Afraid of cutting the cat’s ears with scissors, Paling’s boyfriend Brett Norton carefully carved the cat free with a pocket knife.

About 30 minutes later, “she looked up at him with the most grateful eyes I’ve ever seen a cat give a human being.”

The couple appropriately named the cat ‘Lucky’ who had no trouble drinking and eating after her rescue.

Since then, Nicole watched this surveillance footage that shows what looks like a dark-coloured SUV parked outside the clinic about an hour before she found Lucky.

Two days after her rescue Lucky has adapted nicely to her temporary home.

The clinic has been inundated with calls for people looking to either adopt Lucky or figure out whether the cat is one that they have lost. Either way, she’s still going through testing before she finds her next home.