Watch moment hero saves cat from drowning in Royal Docks

A cat that lives at the Royal Docks Management Authority (RoDMA) lost one of her nine lives the other day when she was pushed into the water in a tussle with another cat.

The incident on April 19 was caught on camera and has gone viral due to its happy ending, where unlucky Felix was scooped out of the docks by engineering and operations manager Scott Derben.

Scott has worked at the Royal Docks for three years – and almost wasn’t there to rescue Felix: “On the day of the rescue I came to work early because I couldn’t sleep. As I pulled round the corner in my car I saw Felix being chased into the water by another cat.”

He explained: “If I’d arrived 5 minutes later it would have been a very different story for Felix.”

The video shows how quickly Scott sprang into action – something that he puts down to his background of 27 years in the Army: “What we are trained to do is make an assessment of a situation, make a decision and act pretty quickly, which is exactly what I did on this occasion - it all happened in a couple of seconds.”

Whilst most people might have been wary of falling into the freezing cold water, his past career as a diver in the Royal Engineers meant that Scott was unfased about leaning over the edge to fish Felix out – and she has remained cool since the dramatic rescue.

Scott said: “She has shown absolutely no gratitude! The water in the Royal Docks and in the Thames is really quite clean now so Felix suffered no ill effects and dried out within an hour.”

He added: “Felix is a rescue cat that RoDMA rescued from Battersea Dogs and Cats home and when she came to us she was pretty wild. She’s definitely in charge here.”