He risked his own life! 😮
Nikolai Talish from St. Petersburg saved three drowning kittens from the Karpovka (river). Passers-by noticed the kittens floating in a cardboard box and called rescuers, but they didn’t arrive on time. Then the young man went down to the shore, dived into the river and swam after the kittens. According to the rescue team, it was deadly.
19-year-old Nikolai told the media why he jumped into the cold water for the kittens, at what point he became “really scared” and how it affected his health.
_When people first saw the cardboard box with the kittens inside floating on the Karpovka, I was sitting in the park nearby with my friend. It was on Sunday, at about 20:00. As they say, people called the rescue team at that exact moment.
At about 20:15, my friend Sasha called me and described the situation, so me and my friend decided to help. We ran around the park looking for a stick or a sack to reach the box and drag it to the shore. However, we didn’t find anything useful.
After 5 minutes or so, Sasha called me again and said they had found a strong wire. It seemed to be a cable of a satellite dish. I ran up and saw that it could hold me. We had to act quickly, as the rescue team didn’t arrive for about 40 minutes after the call. And with no further consideration, I took off my clothes and went down to the shore, holding on to the wire.
When I decided to swim, for a second I remembered how my deceased father went down the wall into the Fontanka river in autumn to take my mom’s package. Inside the package were a book from the library, her cosmetic bag, keys and an umbrella. It helped me a lot.
When I got to the shore, the kittens had already floated closer to the center of the river, and I had to swim a few meters to them. When I swam up, I took the almost soaked box in my hand and began to row to the shore, but the kittens slipped out and began to sink. And if before that I didn’t fear anything and was confident in my strength, now I was really scared. I dived immediately and put them back into the box. In 30 seconds we swam to the shore.
When we were already on the shore, I found some kind of cloth in the box and wrapped the kittens with it, making it a bag. I carried the bag with my teeth and began to climb up the wire. In fact, after taking a couple of steps, I realized I wouldn’t be able to climb all by myself. I started shouting to my friend to help me get out. And they pulled me out.
On the land they wiped me off with dry T-shirts, gave me some whiskey so that I got warm. Later, Sasha took the kittens home.
It was only after everything that I found out it could’ve been deadly. Specialists of the rescue squad “Extremum” said that an unprepared person, climbing into such cold water, risked his life. Back then I didn’t really think about any consequences.
Of course I understood it was dangerous for health. But I was confident in my health, and I warmed up before diving: I ran around in search of a stick or a sack. However, after that accident, I can’t sleep at nights. But I think it’s because after that we went to celebrate with friends and didn’t sleep the whole night. Nothing more. Even the runny nose was not complicated.
Later I started getting messages from strangers calling me for an interview. But I don’t think I’m a hero. I just did whatever I could. Still as a teenager, a girl and I used to catch kittens in basements and attach them to overexposure. I saved about 10-15 kittens back then. So, it’s just three more kittens.
Of course, I feel good when people write about me. I just don’t get those who say it was not worth risking my life for a few kittens. As if they always drown, you can’t save them all. Maybe they are just merciless people that don’t appreciate life. In my 19 years I’ve never seen kittens floating on rivers or drowning. I didn’t see any other solution in that situation.
I have 2 cats myself. One of them is one-eyed with a chronic runny nose (nonallergic rhinitis). It was undoubtedly worth it. My soul made me move. I also realized I was not such a callous person as I thought before.
