A cat who went missing as tornadoes ravaged his home in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area has been reunited with his owners — in a very public way.
When a tornado began to hit Barnsdall — a small town about 40 miles north of Tulsa — on the evening of Monday, May 6, resident Lindsay Crowder told local station KJRH that she and her family decided to go to the city shelter as a precautionary measure, but decided to leave their pets – including their cat Pikachu – behind.
“The sirens went off the first time. We went down to the shelter, then they [turned] off, so we thought it was over,” she recalled to the outlet, speaking about Tuesday’s severe storms. “So we came home and we were watching the radar very closely and we saw that it was coming straight at us. So we went back to the shelter and I’m really glad we did.”
“We didn’t have our pets with us,” Crowder added to the outlet. “I honestly thought we were going to come back and our home would still be here.”
After the family exited the city’s tornado shelter, they discovered the same thing that many Oklahoma residents discovered after the latest tornado strike: Their home had been completely destroyed by the storm and their pets were missing. Despite the damage to their property, the Crowder family began looking for their pets, calling for their cat while KJRH recorded a news report.
In an emotional moment captured on video, Pikachu can be seen emerging from the rubble as its owner calls out to it. As Crowder called, “Here, kitty, kitty,” the Siamese cat crawled out from under a roof and her owner immediately scooped her up in his arms.
“I’m very happy now. This is just a house and we can’t replace it,” Crowder added to the outlet.
Barnsdall, which saw one person killed during the storm, according to KOKI-TV, was just one of many towns in Oklahoma, Missouri and Tennessee that were devastated 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 town.
Although Pikachu has been reunited with his family, organizations like the Humane Society of Tulsa have been working to reunite pets — including dogs and cats — who were displaced during the tornadoes with their owners.
“A lot of times in these situations, cats just stay and are terrified,” Gina Gardner of the Humane Society of Tulsa told KJRH. just stay crouched under the rubble for an extended period of time.”
The Humane Society has set up an emergency shelter in Barnsdall to take in displaced pets, according to its Facebook page. It is now appealing for pet food donations and local assistance in Barnsdall.
