This is the moment a kind-hearted man performs CPR for almost an hour to save a one-month-old kitten that had suddenly stopped breathing at his home in south-western China.

The kitten was being taken care of by a married couple – not named in local media – after they found it wandering their village near Chuxiong, in the province of Yunnan.

The man told local media that the kitten is about one month old and said that he keeps it indoors at night, but lets it outside to bask in the sun.

A short while after its rescue, the man found the poor puss dying on the ground, lying stiff with all four paws in the air.

He immediately began resuscitating the kitten by pressing on its tiny chest with his thumbs and kept up the effort for over an hour.

His wife filmed the final moments of the rescue as the little moggy gradually began to breathe and relax.

The heartwarming footage shows the grey kitten as stiff as a board, apparently either frozen or dead.

But as its owner patiently uses both his thumbs to massage its chest, it miraculously opens its mouth, lets out a small ‘miaow’ and begins breathing again.

Overjoyed that his hard effort paid out, the man lost no time to get the kitty back on its feet and gave it some glucose through a small syringe.

Afterwards, he took it to the nearest vet for proper treatment.

The vet praised his quick response and told him that the dying kitten’s rescue was nothing short of a miracle, local media reported.

He prescribed some medicine for the kitten, and the couple took it home.

The doctor added that the kitten’s sudden cardiac arrest may be due to freezing, or it may be due to insufficient metabolism resulting from malnutrition.