JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- T.K. the kitten loves nothing more than to snuggle on 6-year-old James' lap.

Maybe she knows that he's the one who saved her.

James and his dad Mike Sigler were fishing early Saturday morning on the St. Johns River right underneath the Buckman Bridge.

Suddenly, James heard something.

"He said, 'Cat,' and I said 'Yeah, catfish. We're going to catch catfish,'" Mike said. "I just blew him off, not thinking."

But James was persistent. He heard a cat.

When they turned off their engine, his dad heard it, too.

"We heard the first meow. Let's keep listening," Mike said. "A few minutes later, we heard a louder meow."

Suddenly, they found themselves searching, and it didn't take long for them to see a cute black and white kitten literally clinging to life on a piling.

"She had one paw here and one paw there," Mike said. "She was completely in the barnacles. She was soaking wet in the water up to her neck.

They used a fishing net to rescue her.

Mike and James wonder how she got there in the first place. They think someone may have thrown the kitten off the top of the bridge.

"She had been there a while," Mike said. "Her wounds were bleeding pretty good. We didn't think she was going to make it."

But she did.

They named her T.K. because she's one "tough kitty," and now T.K. has a permanent home with Mike and James.