MAYFIELD, Ky. — Nine days after a tornado demolished his three-story office building in downtown Mayfield, Kentucky, Sonny “Hoot” Gibson was standing in the rubble and heard a faint meow.
It gave him hope that his office cat Madix was alive. Gibson had tried to find the solid black cat after the tornado hit, but had given up after a few days.
Gibson said he did not know how anything could have survived the tornado and the destruction it left behind.
Gibson was standing in the rubble Sunday afternoon when he heard the faint noise. Gibson called over some employees who helped search.
“I thought I heard a meow, and I thought my mind’s playing tricks on me so I hollered his name out, and he meowed again,” Gibson said.
Soon after, they found the cat unscathed in a hole beneath the rubble.
“It was just an incredible feeling to put him in my arms,” Gibson said. “If cats actually have nine lives, he probably used up about eight of them in that nine-day period.”
Gibson says he took Madix home, where he will live as a house cat.
