Earlier this week, Aykut Balli and his wife were taking a routine evening stroll along the coast near their home in Turkey when they spotted something floating in the waves.
“This is where we go every night,” Bally told The Dodo. “The kids were playing on the beach while we were walking. Then my husband noticed a kitten (in the water). I felt an overwhelming urge to act. It felt like my own child was in the water.”
Bally didn’t plan to go swimming that evening, but in the blink of an eye he jumped into the ocean to save the drowning kitten.
A passerby filmed Bally’s heroic actions:
“It’s a living thing,” Bally said. “I jumped in without thinking.”
After pulling the kitten out of the sea, Bally dried her with a towel and warmed her with a heater in his car. He later managed to find the kitten’s concerned parent.
“Once I was sure she was OK, I reunited her with her mother,” Bally said. “The next morning I bought some food and checked the kitten’s health. Luckily the little rascal is doing well.”
But saving the kitten was just the beginning.
“We have a great plan in the works to help our sweet little friends,” Bally said. “They will have their own home.”