When we work together, we can do almost anything. Thanks to a group of kind strangers, one family is counting their blessings this winter.

On a frigid morning in Westford, Mass., a passerby’s sharp eye and quick call for help set off a dramatic rescue for Tiki, a 20-year-old blind cat. Stranded on a thin sheet of ice in the middle of Nabnasset Lake, Tiki’s precarious situation became a community effort that ended in a true holiday miracle.

Dawn Felicani first spotted the small black cat nervously pacing on the fragile ice, about 40 feet from shore. “It was just so stressed,” she said. Knowing the ice was dangerously thin, she called Westford Animal Control for assistance. But before officers could arrive, the ice gave way, plunging Tiki into the freezing water. Then, “all of a sudden, he moved, and I heard crackling,” Felicani said. “His little head was sticking out (and) I was hysterical.”

(L to R) Nate Puza makes his way back to shore after he plucked Tiki out of the water. The cat’s temperature was so low that it didn’t register on a thermometer. Photos by Kris Seymour; Westford Animal Control

By pure luck or divine intervention, two local construction workers, Nate Puza and Kris Seymour, happened to be nearby and noticed the struggling cat. “There’s often geese and ducks out on the lake, what you don’t normally see is a cat on the ice,” Seymour said. “Sure enough, we turned around and he had gone through.”

Without hesitation, they jumped into action. Puza grabbed a rowboat that just so happened to be nearby and used a shovel as a paddle to break through the ice. Seymour pushed the boat forward in the freezing water. “(The cat) looked like it was struggling,” Puza said.

Their efforts paid off. Once they reached the cat, the men pulled him from the icy water and brought him to shore, where Felicani and her partner wrapped him in blankets. When Animal Control Officer Kirsten Hirschler arrived, she found the cat shivering and lethargic, his temperature so low it didn’t even register on the thermometer. “If the guys hadn’t grabbed him immediately, he for sure would have gone down,” she said.

Tiki relaxes at home as he recovers from his cold plunge. Photo by Jon Arden

Hirschler rushed Tiki to a veterinarian, where he was treated with warm fluids. Although his condition was critical, the resilient feline began to recover. “He seems like a miraculous little feline,” Hirschler said.  As the story unfolded, a Facebook post by Westford Animal Control caught the attention of Jon and Melaney Arden, who recognized the cat as their missing pet.

My wife went down and met them at the vet, and it was him,” Jon said, adding, “I think he used up more than just one of his nine lives.”

Tiki, blind for about a year, had somehow wandered half a mile from his yard to the lake. Officials suspect he may have been chased by a predator. “This is the craziest cat story ever,” Arden said. Now safe and sound, Tiki is back home, resting comfortably and enjoying the warmth of his family. His owners expressed gratitude to everyone involved in the rescue. “We’re definitely going to keep him in as much as possible now,” Melaney said.

For Hirschler, the story stands as a testament to courage and compassion. “My hope is that the story, with all of the courage and compassion demonstrated, will inspire others to make similar motions when seeing animals that need assistance,” she said. As Seymour put it, “It really is a little … miracle.”