'It was crazy!' Blind, 20-year-old cat rescued from floating piece of ice in Massachusetts
Tiki may be blind, but he's sneaky. And one lucky, old house cat.
Over the weekend, the black-and-white feline quietly slipped out of his owner's New England home and went on a wild winter ride a Good Samaritan who helped saved his life said she will not forget.
"I was so stressed! It was crazy," Dawn Felicani, of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, recalled of the Monday incident on Nabnasset Lake when she saw the cat floating on a piece of ice. "I don't even know what drew me in to look at it, but I'm so happy that cat is alive."
About 10 a.m. the real estate agent was on her way to work in Westford, a town in Middlesex County, when she said she spotted Tiki walking on thin ice floating about 30-to-40 feet from the lake's shore.
"I was like is that a cat? It was so cold out that day, and my God, the wind," the 56-year-old woman recalled to USA TODAY.
Frantic, she called Westford Animal Control to report the incident.
Officer and Inspector Kirsten Hirschler answered.
Help was on the way.
"It was just circling, and circling. You could see it wasn't completely frozen over, so I panicked," Felicani said of the long-haired Tuxedo Cat. "Then I heard the crackling and was like, 'he's going in.'"
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'His little head was sticking out'
Nearby, two people working on a home heard commotion and stepped in to help.
"His little head was sticking out," said Felicani, who took photos of the long-hair Tuxedo Cat before and after it fell in.
Nate Puza of Townsend, Massachusetts grabbed a shovel and a small boat from a nearby home.
Kris Seymour, of Holden, Massachusetts, pushed the boat out as far as he could.
Puza was able to use a shovel as he moved, breaking through the ice, animal control officers later reported.
"He quickly accessed the cat and plucked him from the water moments before he surely would have succumbed to the frigid cold," Hirschler later wrote in a press release.
The cat, shivering, lethargic and in shock, was taken indoors, toweled off and wrapped up in blankets.
Hirschler saw the cat was neutered, transported it to a vet where the animal's temperature was so low it didn’t even register on a thermometer and said officers began searching for its owners.
That afternoon, Hirschler said, a local resident reached out and told officers their cat Tiki got out sometime late Sunday night or early Monday.
"They were able to positively identify him and then informed us that Tiki is not only 20-years-old, but is also blind," Hirschler later wrote in a press release.
On Thursday, Hirschler told USA TODAY Tiki was back home safe with his grateful owners: a husband and wife and their children.
'Stuck on ice floating... through the night'
Hirschler said officers believe Tiki may have been chased onto the ice by a coyote the night before he was spotted, and found himself stuck on the ice floating straight across the lake through the night.
"This story is nothing short of a miracle from start to finish," Hirschler said. "There is no doubt that we would not have made it in time to save this old man!"
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How thick should ice be before it safe to walk on?
Tiki may not know better, but law enforcement says ice on a frozen lake, river, or pond is never 100% safe.
People should make sure ice on ponds and lakes is least 5 inches thick for fishing, skating and walking and assure it's at least 8 inches thick for travel by snowmobile and off-road vehicles.
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Blind cat named Tiki rescued from Nabnasset Lake in Westford, MA
