Patient Cat Undergoes Removal from Ice, Chelyabinsk Region

[Barbara]

The actual town near Chelyabinsk where this rescue operation occurred in recent days is named "Zlatoust". Any Orthodox person would assume this area was associated with St John Chrysostom in some way. Apparently the name originated in the 1700s and managed to endure all the way through the Soviet era, a covert advertisement for the great Church Father !

"Evidently the name was associated with the name of the Byzantine religious preacher John Zlatoust (John Chrysostom), but the motives for choosing this name are still not clear. According to one view this was due to the date when the contract of 1751 was signed - on the eve of John Zlatoust’s day (November 13), according to another view - because the image of John Zlatoust was the family icon of the Mosolovs"

http://russiatrek.org/zlatoust-city

Just as quiet but winning is this lovely cat with an amazingly fluffy coat who allows herself to be freed from ice at 35 degrees below zero :

[Maria]

Here is the story of the Russian cat as broadcasted on the Weather Channel:

https://weather.com/pets/video/cat-foun ... he-ground/

[Barbara]

A general translation of the commentary of the man, named Sergey Baranov, a 41-year old knife maker, as he films the video is :

"Good people, for those of you who doesnt speak russian:

'Poor kitty, the guy saying it's -35 outside, her legs a frozen to the ground and they are using warm water to unfreeze her, he was holding her up because as soon as she try to stand her feet got frozen to the ground again. The guy saying, look under your cars in the morning, she probably got under car to get warm and in time got stock frozen to ground' "

"social media suggested that the poor cat crawled under a parked car to warm up near its engine and fell asleep only to wake up, the car gone, with all four paws trapped in an icy puddle."

https://www.rt.com/viral/368992-cat-saved-from-ice/

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That in itself is a miracle that the cat was safe after the car left. But horrible to think of so many lovely pets having to seek refuge under a parked car in winter.

As a general warning, it is recommended by experts to slap a few times the hood of one's car BEFORE starting it to wake up any animal which could have crept up under the tires, hoping for a little residual warmth from the engine's heat.

However - in MINUS 35 degree cold, one imagines ANY engine would cool very fast and not provide enough heat even for an ant !

[Barbara]

For readers who did not see the video Maria helpfully posted, here is a picture of the heroic feline, whose amazing power of endurance reminds us of the Orthodox Saints who struggled in Siberia, such as Elder Zosima [Verkhovsky] and his teacher, Elder Basilisk.

Correction to my post above : it's a male not a female. Name is Semyon :

[Barbara]

From Chelyabinsk to Canada, wonderful saves of poor stranded cats are taking place in staggeringly cold temperatures :

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"A train conductor recently saved the life of a stowaway cat he said he found "frozen in ice and snow" under the engine of a train at a station in Canada.

The conductor, Brad Slater, told ABC News that he found the feline this past Sunday while performing a routine inspection on a train that had just arrived at Wainwright.

"I was making sure everything was OK, when I heard the most heartbreaking cat cry I've ever heard," Slater said. "With my light, I eventually found the little guy frozen in ice and snow under the engine above the wheels."

Slater said he thought it was "a miracle" the cat was alive -- especially given that temperatures had been around minus 40-degrees Fahrenheit [my emphasis], and the train that the cat was found on had traveled for 12 hours more than 400 miles from Melville, Saskatchewan.

After coaxing the cat out from under the engine, Slater said he took the cat to his home, which he shares with his wife and three other cats.

There, Slater said he nursed the cat back to health. He also nicknamed the cat "Q-199," after the identification number of the train he was found on.

Slater said he peeled ice and snow off "Little Q," gave him food and water and even took him to a vet.

Though Little Q did not have a collar or microchip, Slater said he believed the cat was likely a house cat because of how "friendly and docile" he was. So the conductor shared his story with news outlets in the hopes of finding the cat's owner.

After seeing the story on the news, Brent Hahn and his wife Lynn Hahn called Slater on Tuesday, claiming that the cat was theirs.

The Hahns are from Melville, Saskatchewan, where the train that the cat was found on had originally traveled from.

Lynn Hahn, 59, told ABC News that Little Q is actually "Tiger," and that she and her husband have been looking for him since late November.

"We were devastated, and our grandchildren were so upset," she said. Lynn Hahn added that she believed Tiger escaped to a train station just a half a mile from the farm she and her husband live and on.

"What's funny is that I actually picked up Tiger as a stray at a train station during my days working for CN [the Canadian National Railway Company]," she said.

Kate Fenske, a media relations lead for CN, confirmed to ABC News that Lynn Hahn and her husband were retired CN employees. Fenske added, "It's amazing. It's like the story has come full circle."

Lynn Hahn said that she now plans to take a train on Thursday to Wainwright, where she will meet with Slater and confirm that Little Q is indeed her beloved pet cat, Tiger.

She noted that her train will be taking the same route that Tiger likely took -- a journey nearly 12 hours long across over 400 miles of Canadian prairie, from Melville, Saskatchewan, to Wainwright, Alberta.

"It'll be quite the adventure, but we look forward to getting him back home," she said.

Slater told ABC News that letting go of the cat will be quite difficult for him since he's "gotten very attached," but he said the photographic evidence the Hahns have provided him with made him "pretty confident" that Little Q is indeed their Tiger.

"I'm just happy he's getting a second chance at life," he said. "The conditions I found him in, I didn't think he could survive. It's a miracle. There's no other way to put it."

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/train-conduct ... ories.html

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Comments by readers of this article emphatically recommend that people keep their cats and pets indoors, especially in cold weather.

[Barbara]

Here is THIS YEAR'S version of the original story on this thread.
In fact, the kitten involved looks just like the picture above ! But that is probably because cats' whiskers look the same way when covered with snow.

This report was given by a man named Slava [ sounds Serbian ? ] -- this time without the last name or location.
Somewhere in Russia, a kitten was rescued by an alert and kindly motorist :

https://www.accuweather.com/en/videos/k ... bsdz_wg9ag

The name he gave the little girl is a happy choice, reflecting his success : Nika, meaning Victory.
Video is only a little over 1 minute.

[Justice]

This is a heartwarming story.