After his rescue, Tiki’s temperature was “so low that it didn’t even register on the thermometer,” animal control officials said
A sharp-eyed passerby helped rescue a cat in Massachusetts from a frigid fate.
On the morning of Monday, Dec. 16, a person noticed that a feline — later identified as Tiki, a blind, 20-year-old male cat — was “floating on a piece of ice” on Nabnasset Lake in Westford, Mass., Westford Animal Control said on Facebook. In other words, Tiki was trapped.
The person, identified by the organization as Dawn F., called animal control and reported that Tiki was “circling” the ice chunk, which was located about 30 to 40 feet from shore. A rescue team from animal control headed to the lake to assess the situation. But before they could arrive, the ice beneath the cat began to crack.
As animal control officials left for the rescue, Tiki became “submerged in the water with only his head showing,” according to animal control. Temperatures in Westford remained above freezing on Monday, but only by a few degrees, according to data from weather.com.
With the senior cat engulfed in cold lake water, some worried bystanders decided to take action. Two people working on a nearby home when Tiki began sinking, identified as Kris S. and Nate P., “hopped into a nearby rowboat” and headed out to the cat, animal control said.
Kris “pushed the boat out as far as he could” and helped Nate “navigate from shore,” the organization added. “Nate was able to utilize a shovel as he moved, breaking through the ice. He quickly accessed the cat and plucked him from the water moments before he surely would have succumbed to the frigid cold.”
Footage shared in the comments of the organization’s post shows Tiki soaking wet and sitting in the boat as Kris paddles to shore.
Once out of the lake, Tiki was taken indoors to warm up, dry off, and wrap up in blankets, animal control said.
The feline also received veterinary care, and animal control officials quickly became worried that Tiki would not make it. “Upon our arrival, this neutered male was shivering, lethargic and in shock,” the organization said, adding that his temperature was “so low that it didn’t even register on the thermometer.”
“Unsure if he would pull through, we began urgently searching for his owners,” the organization said. Luckily, Tiki’s owner reached out, telling officials that the cat “had gotten out last night or early this morning” — and informed the agency the pet is blind.
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Animal control officials believe that the senior cat “may have been chased onto the ice by a predator last night and found himself stuck on the ice floating straight across the lake through the night.”
Without the help of the Good Samaritans who stepped in to rescue Tiki, the cat may not have made it off the lake. Now, he is Tiki “resting with his owners,” the Westford Police Department shared on Facebook.
In the words of Westford Animal Control, Tiki’s rescue was “nothing short of a miracle from start to finish” — and one that wouldn’t have been possible if people hadn’t stepped up to help the stranded feline.
“There is no doubt,” the organization wrote, that without their help, animal control officials “would not have made it in time to save this old man!”