This kitten went from the garbage pile to the best cat!
According to the Moscow Times, a manatee rescued from a garbage bag seconds before he died at a Russian waste processing plant has been named an honorary assistant to the regional environment minister.
Video images captured earlier this week at the plant in the Ulyanovsk region of central Russia, he shows workers sorting garbage along a conveyor belt when he had the surprise of a lifetime.
“The cat was not meowing and the bag was not moving,” worker Mikhail Tukash told local television. “I needed to cut my bag to look for metals. I was just doing my job. ”
The video shows Tukash tearing up his bag to find the black-and-white cat, which he showed his bewildered co-workers while consoling him.
If the feline had stayed in the conveyor belt, it would have been within seconds of using the nine lives, the Moscow Times reported, citing the plant’s director.
“We are bringing the cat to our ministry and all employees will take responsibility for it,” the region’s environmental minister, Gulnara Rakhmatulina, said in the report.
The kitten, who will be nominated through a competition, will serve as an honorary deputy in charge of wildlife protection.
Tukash and the plant director were also honored with letters of thanks.
Veterinarians who examined the bewildered cat found it to be healthy, well-fed and probably domestic.
“If you can’t keep an animal at home, you can always give it away to a shelter,” Rakhmatulina said, addressing former owners who apparently removed the cat.
According to local television reports, at least three animals have been previously rescued at the plant, which is about 400 kilometers east of Moscow: two red-eared sliding turtles and an African hedgehog nicknamed Vezunka, the Russian word that means “lucky.”