Bart the cat is seen Thursday after completing a positive health checkup, nearly a year after being buried alive.
Humane Society of Tampa Bay
It's been nearly a year after he was run over, buried alive and then left to claw his way out of the earth, but now Bart the cat -- the so-called "Zombie Cat" -- is celebrating life, perhaps the best way cats know how: sleeping.
In a photo posted by the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, Florida, on Thursday, the black-and-white cat is seen wearing a festive top hat just hours before ringing in the new year from his cozy bed.
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"Happy New Year from our sweet boy, Bart! As you can see, he is fairly unimpressed with the festivities #ZombieCat #MiracleCat," the group captioned the snap.
Bart indeed proved to be some kind of miracle after he was found wandering around, seriously injured, five days after his owner said he was hit by a car.
Bart's injuries included the loss of an eye and a broken jaw from the traumatic incident last January.
Humane Society of Tampa Bay
After believing Bart to be dead, Ellis Hutson said he had his neighbors help bury him.
As seen in the New Year's Eve photo, which was taken during a positive health assessment, Bart appears to be quite alive.
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"He's healthy, he's happy," Sherry Silk, director of the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, told The Huffington Post on Sunday. "You can tell that he's gotten a little bit porky."
Bart lost an eye during his traumatic ordeal and suffered other injuries including a broken jaw. Silk described him as fully recovered, though his jaw is still a bit tender.
"It has healed but it's not as strong as before it got shattered," Silk said.
Though Bart is kicking off 2016 with a chaotic year behind him, a legal battle over Bart's ownership remains underway. Silk said Hutson refuses to give up ownership of his feline.
"It's just ridiculous," she said of the back and forth, which she described as "excruciatingly slow."
"I just hope and pray that in the new year we will get ownership of him," she added.
Speaking to HuffPost about the incident in February, Hutson defended his treatment of Bart, saying that he truly believed his cat was dead when they buried him.
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“The cat is being held hostage,” he said. “This is our family pet.”
Until the dispute is resolved, Bart is being cared for by a foster parent, one who Silk said "obviously has fallen in love" with the cat.
Should the Humane Society secure Bart's ownership, the foster parent would have first dibs on formally adopting him, Silk said.
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