When Ivan Hazelden returned to his wooden cottage in Whiteheads Creek six days after being caught in a rapidly moving blaze, the last thing he expected was for the structure to still be intact. But he was even more surprised when his runaway cat walked in the door.

Ivan said he’d never been a fan of cats.

“I don’t like cats. I’ve got two. I saved them as kittens,” he said.

“I went to a wrecker’s joint, and he had two kittens and a bucket of water. He was about to drown them. I just grabbed them and said, ‘you’re not drowning them’. I’m a sucker for animals.

“So, that’s how they came, and I’ve had them for seven years, Peanut and Millie, I love them to death.”

On Friday, January 9, Ivan was caught in the worst of the Longwood bushfire.

He took his time packing his car, not seeing any sign of nearby smoke until it began to race at him from the bottom of his property.

In the middle of the madness, Millie rushed out the door and into the blaze.

As Ivan fled to safety, he thought he’d never see her again, but he also wasn’t sure if he’d even make it out alive.

“I don’t know how to describe it. My cottage is on a bit of a hill, and the next thing I knew, it was on fire,” he said.

“The wind changed, and I’ll be honest, I didn’t think I was going to get out.

“I thought I was gone because it was moving that damn fast.”

When Ivan arrived at the Seymour relief centre in Chittick Park, he said he was exhausted, but the efforts of volunteers on site were just astounding.

While the devastation of potentially never seeing Millie again was at the forefront of his mind, Ivan said he was no stranger to fire, or harrowing loss.

“We’ve had a fire before, and I lost my daughter,” he said.

“If you sit here worrying about all the stuff you lost, then you won’t get on.”

When he finally returned home, he was already prepared to feel the loss of Millie.

But the cat had other plans.

“I left the sliding door open, and I was sitting there, and I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye, so I didn’t take much notice, but then I looked,” he said.

“At first, I didn’t recognise her. I thought it was a possum. But, it was Millie, I called her and she came over. I got her some water and she nearly drank half of the big bowl.

“I had talked myself into believing that she was dead. I didn’t want to find her because I knew she was dead. But then, when she walked in and she wasn’t dead — it was just a massive relief over me.”

After losing her whiskers, and suffering burns to her paws and fur, Millie’s now on the mend at the Seymour Veterinary Surgery.

And as he gets ready to take her back home, all Ivan can do is wonder how she survived.

“The cat must have gone through hell,” Ivan said.

“I think she thought, ‘well, I’m home now, you’re going to look after me, Dad’.”

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Tuesday, 15th November 2022

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