They say that cats have nine lives, and the 20-year-old blind cat Tiki from Massachusetts is clearly one of them. If luck favors felines, then Tiki is one highly lucky cat.
Why? Well, the little feline simply had its brush with death when it fell into icy cold waters of a pond, but at that precise moment when the freaking accident happened, there was a passerby who was completely aware of her surroundings, and some nearby construction workers who did not hesitate to help.
USA Today reported that Tiki was actually a carefree cat who likes to roam around. Unfortunately, over the weekend, the cat sneaked out of his owner's home in New England. In his wandering, he accidentally headed towards a thin piece of floating ice and since he was blind, he simply circled around.
Dawn Felicani, a passerby, happened to be at the area at the moment that Tiki was on thin ice. It was about 10 a.m. and the ice was approximately 30 to 40 feet from the shore of the lake.
"I was so stressed! It was crazy," narrated Dawn about the incident on Nabnasset Lake.
"I don't even know what drew me in to look at it, but I'm so happy that cat is alive," she said.
She immediately called Westford Animal Control, and it was Inspector Kirsten Hirschler who answered.
Felicani also recalled that Tiki was just "circling and circling." She also noted how she panicked seeing that the waters were not completely frozen over.
"Then I heard the crackling and was like, 'he's going in.'" Felicani recalled.
Aside from Felicani, there were also two construction workers working on a home who immediately helped out, WDSU reported.
"His little head was sticking out," said Felicani, who made sure to take photos of the long-haired feline before he fell into the icy waters and after.
With everyone at the scene sharing the common goal of saving Tiki from the freezing waters, everyone did what they can. They used a small boat, armed with a shovel to break through the ice, with the hopes of reaching the cat before it would be too late.
Hirschler said that the rescuers "plucked him from the water moments before he surely would have succumbed to the frigid cold."
That afternoon, the owners of Tiki were able to reach out to report having lost him.
"They were able to positively identify him and then informed us that Tiki is not only 20-years-old, but is also blind," Hirschler said.
