In a story that defies belief, a woman discovered her beloved cat alive—sixteen days after a devastating tornado tore through Joplin, Missouri, in 2011.
This is one tough pussy. Lavern the cat, a resilient 13-year-old feline, survived more than two weeks trapped beneath the rubble of what used to be her family’s home. The EF5 tornado, one of the deadliest in U.S. history, struck on May 22, completely obliterating the Cruse family’s house.
On a return trip to the wreckage, Terrla Cruse and her sister were simply trying to retrieve some paperwork for a FEMA application. But as they picked through the shattered remains of their life, something unexpected happened—they heard meowing.
At first, Cruse dismissed it. After all, how could Lavern have survived such destruction, without food or water, for over two weeks? It seemed impossible. But the meows came again—faint, desperate, real.
With hearts pounding, the sisters began to dig, clawing through debris with their bare hands. Then, silence. The meowing stopped.
But they didn’t give up.
And then—miraculously—they found her. Lavern was alive.
Dusty, weak, and wide-eyed, the cat had somehow weathered the storm, hidden beneath the ruins of her world. It was a moment of pure joy and disbelief—a shining light in the darkest of times.
Lavern’s survival is more than luck. It’s a story of love, resilience, and the unbreakable bond between a pet and her people.
Joplin may have been torn apart—but in that moment, hope was found under the rubble, in the form of one extraordinary cat.
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