Captain Jordan Smith did not expect to be pulling a cat out of his fishing net last week.
Smith, who owns Florida’s Let’s Fish Destin Charters told HuffPost he was out in Destin Harbor on Thursday when an odd movement caught his eye. He saw something flying through the air near Marler Bridge, “probably 15 feet off the water,” before hitting the surface.
“At first I thought it was like a trash bag, with some trash in it,” he said.
When it started moving, he thought it could be an otter.
But on closer inspection, he realised it was a cat.
“I saw this little head swimming around,” he said. “She was swimming toward me, like, ‘Oh, human, save me!’”
Smith dipped a net into the water to pull out the struggling feline, now named “Miracle.”
“She latched ahold of me and didn’t want to let go,” he said. “She was just staring at me the whole time.”
Smith said there’s no way the cat could just have fallen off the bridge, which he notes has a clearance of about 56 feet. He believes someone threw her off intentionally. He said that the black cat was “spinning” in the air in such a way that suggested someone tossed her off the bridge with some force.
According to an Okaloosa County Sheriff’s report that HuffPost obtained, Smith reported the incident to authorities but the case is “inactive” because there is no “significant evidence” leading to a particular suspect.
In the meantime, Miracle was recovering at the vet this week. Smith said that the cat was pregnant and ended up miscarrying the kittens.
He plans on adopting her when she’s released from the vet.
“The vets say whenever they go into her care, she definitely hisses, but then when you start petting her she’s great,” he said.
Miracle’s next challenge will likely be getting along with Smith’s dog, which he described as his “princess.”
“The last time I had my dog around a cat, the cat chased my dog around,” Smith said.
This story originally appeared on HuffPost.