20-year-old blind cat rescued from icy Massachusetts pond after quick thinking

Tiki, a 20-year-old blind black and white cat, loves to go for walks outside. But this time he caused a scare after he was seen on the ice floating in a Massachusetts pond and then fell in.

He has an alert passerby and some nearby construction workers to thank for his rescue.

“The crackling sound came and I was like hysterical,” bystander Dawn Felicani recalled Thursday. “And all of a sudden, it fell!” His little head was sticking out! I’m in tears and panicking.

She called first responders and a local animal control officer in Westford on Monday. One of two construction workers from a nearby house jumped into a boat and the other pushed him out and helped him navigate Nabnasset Pond. The worker on the boat used a shovel to break up the ice and get it out of the water.

Tiki was taken inside, dried off and wrapped in blankets.

Animal Control Officer Kirsten Hirschler said in a news release that Tiki was shivering, lethargic and in shock. He was taken to a veterinarian. She said her temperature was so low “that it didn’t even register on the thermometer.”

She said she thought Tiki might have been chased onto the ice by a predator and gotten stuck there. He doesn’t usually venture that far, his owner John Arden said Thursday.

Tiki is fine and acting like nothing happened, Arden said.

He and his wife have owned Tiki since he was a kitten. He has been blind for about a year, but he is still doing well.

“He’s pretty upset that he can’t go back outside,” Arden said.