A cat who went missing while tornadoes ravaged her home in Tulsa, Okla., has been reunited with her owners — in a very public way.
When the tornado began tearing through Barnsdall — a small town about 40 miles north of Tulsa — on the night of Monday, May 6, resident Lindsay Crowder told local station KJRH that she and her family decided to go to a city shelter as a precaution, but decided to leave their pets – including Pikachu the cat – behind.
“The sirens went off for the first time, we went down to the shelter, then they [turned] so we thought it was over,” she recalled to the newspaper, referring to Tuesday’s severe storms. “We got home and we were watching the radar closely and saw it heading straight for us . So we went back to the shelter and I’m so glad we did.”
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“We didn’t have our pets with us,” Crowder added to the outlet. “I honestly thought we would come back and our house would still be here.”
After the family came out of the city’s tornado shelter, they found what many Oklahomans found after the last tornado outbreak – their house completely destroyed by the storm and their pets missing. Despite the damage to their property, the Crowder family began searching for their pets, calling out to the cat as KJRH filmed a news segment.
In the candid moment captured on video, Pikachu can be seen emerging from the rubble as her owner calls out to her. As Crowder called, “Here, kitty, kitty,” a Siamese cat came out from under the roof, and her owner immediately scooped her up in her arms.
“I’m so happy right now. This is just a house and we can’t replace it,” Crowder added to the outlet.
Barnsdall, where one person died during the storm, according to KOKI-TV, was just one of many towns in Oklahoma, Missouri and Tennessee ravaged by the latest cluster of storms in the Midwest.
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According to the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, Barnsdall reported damage to more than 30 homes and also reported a natural gas leak in the city.
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Although Pikachu has been reunited with her family, organizations like the Humane Society of Tulsa are working to reunite pets — including cats and dogs — who were displaced during the tornado with their owners.
“A lot of times, in situations like this, cats just stay there and they’re terrified,” Gina Gardner of the Humane Society of Tulsa told KJRH. .”
The Humane Society has set up an emergency shelter in Barnsdall to take in displaced pets, according to their Facebook page. He is now seeking donations of pet food and assistance on the ground in Barnsdall.
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Source: HIS Education