“Peach kept my heart warm and he kept my faith alive,” the Ukrainian man told the Associated Press of his feline companion.
A Ukrainian man who was on the verge of freezing to death was rescued from a ravine in the Carpathian Mountains with a furry little companion he says saved his life: a kitten named Peach.
According to the Associated Press, Vladislav Duda, 28, was found “soaked and frozen” and severely hypothermic in a 400-meter (437-yard) deep ravine in Romania’s northern Maramures region last week. It took dozens of the region’s mountain rescue workers to save him in harsh blizzard conditions.
“The cat was warm and was warming him … so he saved his life,” Dan Benga, the director of the Maramures mountain rescue service, told the outlet. “The only thing we saw he is caring about is the cat. He doesn’t care about himself.”
When rescuers located Duda, they unzipped his jacket and discovered Peach snuggled inside. Benga added that he asked Duda if he was okay, but the Ukrainian was fixated on the well-being of his cat. “I’m happy because my cat is alive. I got a chance from God for a new life. The happiest moment is because the cat is here with me,” Benga recalled Duda saying.
Like Benga, Duda firmly believes that his kitten is why he survived this ordeal.
“What I remember is the fear of the unknown and the fear of not making it through the night alive,” Duda, a journalist, told the Associated Press on Monday. “My Peach kept me alive.”
Duda’s difficult journey began when he fled Ukraine to avoid being drafted into his country’s armed forces fighting against Russia. He and his months-old kitten traveled for over a week before becoming stranded. The weather in the area is said to reach frigid temperatures as low as 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit), but Duda remains convinced that Peach’s warmth kept them both alive, physically and spiritually.
“It’s like a dream, after all I have been through, I only hoped to be found and to survive,” Duda told the AP. “Peach kept my heart warm, and he kept my faith alive.”
A first attempt to save Duda via helicopter retrieval was aborted due to extreme weather conditions that hampered visibility. So, ground rescuers took on the grueling mission of traversing the deep snow-filled terrain until they reached the pair.
The ascent out of the ravine took more than five hours, and Benga told AP that Peach was tightly gripped to Duda’s chest “until we put him in the ambulance.”
Duda, who had a severe case of hypothermia when rescuers found him, is receiving anti-inflammatory medication and blood circulation treatment. Izabella Kiskasza, who runs a community center for Ukrainian refugees in Maramures, is assisting with the duo’s recovery.
Peach received veterinary treatment in Baia Mare on Monday, Dec. 9, and is expected to fully recover.
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