According to Cuteporter Melinda M., this villager carried kittens on a basket towards dry land as he waded through floodwaters last month in Cuttack city, India. Around 700,000 people have been affected by the floods.
Marvelous photo by Biswaranjan Rout for Associated Press.
Beautiful photos. What a hero!
Awwwww!
I didn’t know cats can swim!
Most domestic cats don’t like water, but they can swim if they have to.
Yup, they can totally swim. They just hate it. In fact, most mammals can swim, including elephants and sloths.
A lot of them hate swimming, too. My family’s dog hated swimming, my friend’s family’s dog hated swimming, my husband’s family’s dog was afraid of water that amounted to as much as a bathtub. The weirdos. Apparently tigers love swimming, though.
Wow. I love this. Such a good man and such a devoted mama cat.
This breaks my heart.
Mama Cat is a Super Hero!!!!! (And the man has a good heart.)
Aww Mama Cat!!
Talking about priorities here
My cat would be up on my shoulder like a parrot. A 12-lb shoulder parrot.
He does that when I’m carrying him (while he’s wearing his harness) and something spooks him.
Nothing quite so attractive as a man like this!
agree
*sigh*
Now I haz a sad.
Really? I’s have a happy that there’s people out there thinking about the little kittens out there even in the midst of a natural disaster.
It’s just that now I will be worried about all of them– human and kitties.
I’m a doof that way.
Yes. I want to nominate him for “cute men” calendar not so much the cuteness but the heroism. Maybe we need a “heros of CO” calendar too. *sigh*
he is a wonderful heroic person!
He is collecting food…
Wow, what an ass you are.
Agreed.
yes, an EPIC ass – shame, shame, shame furr posting such a stoopid comment;
poor Kittehs, and MamaKitteh too – I hope they are safe now – and alive
Seconded.
thirded
What a sorry comment that was, Gabriel. Yes, if you wanted to look at cold hard facts about poor people in desperate situations, that would be plausible. But way to make prejudiced assumptions about individuals you never met.
also a correction to earlier comment: cold hard facts about SOME hypothetical people in desperate situations. This guy might be the proud owner of these kitties or just someone who values life.
Somehow I doubt if he wanted them for food, he would be carrying them in a basket over his head alive to keep the dry…
Exactly. If you wanna go the cold hard facts route, cats are good mousers, and by keeping the kittens happy and alive he’s protecting his food source by protecting the animals that kill the mice that eat his food.
sounds reasonable to me. better to point fingers at the indians who revere rats on one end of the country and eat them on the other. life is weird.
WHY must people always be so mean?! I’m hoping the man, the mommy cat and the kittens are all okay now.
Wow. Thanks for crapping all over everyone’s happy. Do you feel better now?
On top of what everyone else has already said, that’s some racist crap right there, Gabriel. WTG.
Common guys, is this your first day in the internet??? DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS! ignore comments like that, they will never go away, it is only there to make you mad. So, Gabe wins.
C.O. has been lucky so far, peeps here are not used to trolls.
and he sneaked in and got so many responses, i can’t just delete him without making you all look like a crazed horde of loonies (i mean, more than usual)
seemed to me we had plenty of trolls back in the day, but due to the tireless efforts of our beloved mods past and present, Theo and Sharpy, they rarely waste their time here anymore. Yay!
Yes, I can recall some absolute horrors, back in the day. Thanks to the mods for keeping them in their boxes, where they belong.
you are so welcome! fortunately CO provides us with decontamination showers after every shift.
I’m pretty sure there’s easier food to transport than kittens, of all things.
That being said, I think it says a lot about this man’s character that values the life of the kittens enough to transport them to safety instead of other valuables he must have had.
I snickered. I love cats, and that’s obviously not what he’s doing but yeah, I snickered.
Whoa, Dude, Grow a heart why don’t ya!
Is there some big Indians = cat-eaters stereotype I don’t know about? If not, unless a mod edited the post, I have no idea why what Gabe said warranted all that whargarbl. It wasn’t funny, but it wasn’t offensive either, just dumb. I wouldn’t have even considered it trolling if it hadn’t been such a successful troll.
People don’t eat cats/dogs etc, in India. Also, a flood like this wouldn’t cause much of a food shortage to cause people to resort to this.
It’s a joke, guys. Geez.
Momma was probably in the basket at one time but jumped. She’s following close behind though! Sweet babies appear to be safe and dry. Awesomeness.
Hero!!!
The poor mama was probably too scared to stay in the basket, but she looks fine swimming along there!
All those cute little kittyan faces looking over the basket in the first picture just made me melt…
How brave the man carrying the basket is, especially in that deep, brown water *shudder* – gives me the shivers just thinking about it !!
Can’t get over dedicated momma swimming along close by, probably offering up meows of encouragement to her bebehs !!
I love how much kindness can be conveyed in one photograph.
What a good man and a good mama!
But, what about that poor mama cat??? She’s not in the basket. She seems to have had to swim. I sure hope she made it. Breaks my heart seeing her struggling in the in the water.
If she wanted to be out of the water, Karen, she’d be clawing her way up his leg right now. I think you can safely pick up the pieces of your heart.
Yes indeed! I can picture this. It has happened to me before! Climbing up the human staircase!
Many devout Hindus value all life and wouldn’t even eat an insect,this man is rescuing his pets!
Fantastic pictures. Thank you for spreading the cute and a bit of human kindness…
I love this guy. I hope that he and his family and friends are safe and dry now.
I second that, PJ. I also hope that dear sweet mommy cat and her dear sweet babies are ok as well.
Good work, Sir.
I’m hoping the man, the mama and the bebeh kitties made it to safety!
Prayers and love to everyone struck by these floods — whether they be people, ani-pals or whatever. It always amazes me how those who suffer the greatest loss or hardship seem to demonstrate such generosity and grace. It isn’t just people. It is animals too.
This picture is full of win. Three cheers for the brave rescuer and Mama!
This guy is my hero!
Every life matters: what a beautiful act of kindness.
such a beautiful picture for so many reasons, the AMAZING man helping out these little meows and the momma meow swimming right beside him, so so awesome. i want to give this man a hug, we need more people like him in the world.
I want to give that man a big hug…..and all the kitties too of course.
I believe that gentleman should be given a medal. And I’ll take care of the momma and kittens for him, no problem.
Such cute little kittehs! No wonder that man wanted to rescue them!
A tisket, a tasket,
Riding to safety in a basket…
Yes!
I love how in the first picture, they’re all, “Ahoy matey!” and piloting him toward shore . . . and in the second one, the wee creamsickle one turns around to yell at mama, “Hey mom!! We’re playing pirates!! Mom!! Mommm!!! Watch us play pirates!!” And mama is just (paddlepaddlepaddlepaddlepaddle).
LOVE!
I thought there are 3 kittens in the first pic. How did they come out to 4 in the second one? Are they still cell dividing?
Lol, I’m thinking it’s something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PAVSBUCCkQ
Warning! NSFAnyone already weak from daily cuteness. Brace yourself.
Oh God, don’t look at the ‘Dreaming Kitty’ one on this link or your head will ‘splode!! My computer is all gunked up with rainbow now….
Am I the only one wondering how this man can be so callous to ignore the mother cat?? Shes practically drowning behind him and he doesnt look too concerned with her. There’s plenty of room in that basket for her.
Yes.
:0 I love Sharpy!
There’s room for her but the man is carrying the basket of scared kittens through flood waters and the kittens are likely moving around making holding it while navigating the waters difficult. She may simply have been too heavy to carry along with the kittens while trying to wade through deep water with her and kittens moving around. And it is a photo, not a video. He may have looked back several times to check on the momma but it just wasn’t an interesting shot for the photographer.
Considering that this man was kind enough to carry a basket of helpless kittens through a flood, I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he was doing the best he could in a bad situation.
Yes, that probably was what was happening. A nervous fully grown cat would be hard to balance on your head in a basket, and the kittens might have fallen out with any commotion. I wish there was a video of this, or an update to the story – would love to know that the man and his fluffy family are ok.
This guy needs an online video of one of the kittens nibbling on his hair.
Thank you, nameless hero!
I sort of wonder if this man needs the kittehs for mousing. In which case, they’re probably super important to him! Kudos to him for carrying them through all that mucky water.
And I don’t blame him for letting Mama swim. She might’ve been in there at first, but then jumped out. Or she might’ve been too heavy–lord knows I couldn’t carry my Beetle above my head like that. Either way, he probably needs her, too.
You guys want to talk about racism? How about electing this guy for the cute men of Cute Overload calendar (or do only honkeys get the vote)? I don’t like the moustache, but I think he’s pretty hot, and that second photo is some serious sexy! To each his own, I suppose.
Also, totally awesome picture…
You are right; I second the nom-nom-nomination of this guy for cute men of Cute Overload calendar. (My partner is Indian, and take it from me, lots of Indians are STHERIOUSLY hot! XD )
Third! he should be in the calendar.
What an excellent human being!
Anyone that is accustomed to carrying a load on his head can handle a LOT more weight that a momcat and a handful of kittens. I’m willing to bet that he tried to carry Mom too, but she paniced and baled out when he entered the water, then chose to swim along behind. I’m sure he’s concerned about her, too, but a cat’s gonna do what a cat’s gonna do and I see no way that he could have safely stopped in the middle of the waters and lifted the momcat into the basket. But with flooding like that, I’ll bet he was praying all the way across, for all of them. Looks like God was listening…..
Well said, well said. If he cared enough for the kittens to rescue them, he surely cared enough for the mommakat, but she probably was freaking out and had to swim behind.
It looks like mommakat is doing pretty well in the water, even if she’s miserable.
Princess Arjumand? Great, now this guy is gonna cause another incongruity, and Ned will get time-lag again. Unless one of them is Penwiper, and those kittens were already non-significant objects– Wait, Finch? Costumes did a good job.
(Sorry… HAD TO.)
I’m also impressed with his mad skillz, carrying a basket full of squirmy kittens with just one hand!
What’s cuter than carrying crying kittens in a basket?! Mommy cat following the person carrying the kittens!!!!
D’awwwww! Hope that all r safe! The kitties must be experiencing some major vertigo up there
. I’m with the one who said they want to give the man and the kitties a collective hug. GLOMP!!! [hoping not to crush anyone with my collossal weight LOL]
PS: To the j**k who thinks they are food, Hindus are evegtarian like me so no chance of that.
I’m going to go a bit stereotypish here and say this hero reminds me of Hindu gentlemen I have known personally here in the States. They definitely would have done the same thing, for no other reason than saving the kitties. And yes, definitely goes on the Men of Cute calendar! It’s not ALL about having a redonkulously cute smile while cuddling a bebeh monkeh… not entirely… OK sometimes… but this guy gets a WIN.
Oh, and my money is on “Mama was in the basket but refused to stay there, and we just don’t see the photos of ManlyMan checking on her as he braves the floodwaters to save the bebehs.”
Geez, three years of lurking blown by one guy with a basketful of kittens…