Hilary Swank Recalls Rescuing Cat in the Aftermath of 9/11: ‘It Was Missing Its Person’ (Exclusive)

Hilary Swank remembers the cat that will always have a place in her heart.

The actress, 49, shares her memories of volunteering with the ASPCA after 9/11 on a SiriusXM podcast Literally! with Rob Lowe, which will be announced on Thursday. While talking about her love for animals, Swank recalls rescuing pets whose owners were unable to reach them after a tragedy.

“People would go to the piers on West Street and say, ‘my dog ​​Simpson, or my goldfish or my rabbit,’ or whatever it is, and ‘this is my address, this is my apartment,’ and I would take these cards and off we would go,” Swank tells PEOPLE in an exclusive podcast clip.

Hilary Swank and Rob Lowe.

John Sciulli/Variety via Getty; Jon Kopaloff/WireImage

Working with animals was nothing new for Swank — she says she volunteered with the ASPCA before 9/11. But after 9/11, there were many dangers and obstacles in the way. Apart from the possibility of the building collapsing or catching fire, neither the elevators nor the equipment were working.

“If their animal was on the 50th floor, you walked up to the 50th floor,” he tells Rob Lowe, his former brother-in-law. “And we would go up there and bring cats, we brought turtles, we brought fish, we brought a lot of dogs. A couple of hamsters, I think.”

She continues, “God, but I mean, those apartment buildings, they were missing windows, and the trauma these animals went through living there, you know, some for a few days and some for a few weeks.”

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Lowe, 59, then reminds Ordinary angels the star of an unforgettable story she once told him about what he describes as a particularly “terrified” cat.

“It was crazy,” remembers the mother of two children. “He was missing a person — who knows how long she didn’t have food. The front windows were blown out. It was smoky. It was dirty. It was dangerous.”

She later reveals that she had to be creative to finally get the cat to safety: “She kept getting out of the blanket, so we finally figured out how to put her in a pillow case, we knew she could still breathe through it, we returned them to their owners.”

Hilary Swank during an interview on ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’ on February 14, 2024.

Todd Owyoung/NBC/Getty

Despite the stress Swank and the pets have endured, she says nothing compares to finding a family of furry friends.

“Reuniting these animals with their owners was such a gift. They were so happy,” she says.

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New episodes Literally! with Rob Lowe are available every Thursday on the SiriusXM app and all other major podcast platforms.

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