Homeless Russian Cat ‘Rescues’ Abandoned Baby Boy

A homeless cat in Russia has won praise for keeping a baby boy abandoned in a cold driveway warm. The story happened in the town of Obninsk in the Kaluga region, where the baby was abandoned at the entrance of an apartment complex and lying on the floor on Saturday, a day when the temperature was several degrees Celsius below zero. A local cat named Masha lived in a cardboard box in the hallway that “warmed the baby for several hours with his body,” Zvezda TV channel reported on Thursday. After hearing loud cries, one of the residents opened the front door and discovered the baby on the floor, with the cat sitting next to it, licking it and trying to warm it, TV Zvezda reported. “The people are sure, if the cat doesn’t take care of it, the baby won’t have a chance,” the channel host said. Nadezhda Makhovikova, who lives in an apartment upstairs, told REN TV that she went outside after hearing what sounded as if the cat was in distress. “When I went down, I saw it was the baby crying.” When paramedics arrived and put the baby in an ambulance, Masha ran after them, REN TV reported. “She was very worried about where we took the baby,” Vera Ivanina, a paramedic, told REN TV. She ran right behind us, miaowing. She is truly a rational being.” Russian television aired footage of the shaggy blue-eyed tabby cat, being fed by residents and allowed to live in the hall. The baby, a boy between two and three months old, turned out to be completely healthy. He was left with clean clothes and a pack of diapers. Police launched a search for the parents while the baby was being cared for in hospital.