Last month in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, 20 year-old Julie Lebel was out walking when she was approached by a Hydro (or electrical) worker about a kitten he’d seen while on the job four days earlier.
“I went out looking for her immediately after hearing the news from a Hydro worker,” Lebel told Northern News. “I soon found the young cat meowing with her paw and tail stuck four inches deep in hard ice where she had likely spent the past two cold nights in temperatures of -30 degrees.”
Lebel said she found the cat in a ditch. “The kitten was in awful conditions and in horrendous weather for nearly five days,” she said.
“After melting the ice with warm water I was able to release her and what happened next broke my heart. She held my head, hugged my face, and kissed my nose with hers to say ‘thank you’ and would not let me go.
“I called her ‘Hugsy’”
Little Hugsy received treatment at Kirkland Lake Northern Advocates for Animals. Lebel wrote on her Facebook page, “After her first vet appointment we believe she will loose half of her tail and some of the foot but she’s a sweet young cat and a real fighter. Huggs has been vaccinated and we are giving her some pain medication! She’s doing very well.”
When called heroic, Lebel said she likes to think she didn’t do anything most anyone else wouldn’t have done.
“Are you kidding? I don’t see how anyone could ‘not’ help this poor kitten,” she said. “I didn’t have a choice. She was going to die whether it was to be eaten by a wild animal, freeze or starve to death. I take pride in what I did but I also felt like it was the normal thing to do.”
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