A Mayfield man found his missing cat while sifting through the rubble of his three-story office building nine days after a deadly tornado wreaked havoc on the Kentucky town.
Sonny “Hoot” Gibson told News Channel 5 he was sitting where his desk used to be on December 19, when his missing 9-year-old cat Madix let out a faint meow.
“Out of the blue, I heard that meow. When I heard it, and I said his name, and I heard it faintly again, I knew it was him,” said Gibson. “My knees got so weak, my chest almost got tight. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to have a heart attack here.’ I was blown away.”
The meows were murmured, and Gibson could not immediately identify where Madix was. Gibson reached out to some of his employees who then assisted him with the search effort, according to the Associated Press.
The group eventually found the cat in a pocket underneath the rubble. Though Madix was unharmed, he was shaking and scared News Channel 5 reported.
“It was just an incredible feeling to put him in my arms,” Gibson told the Associated Press. “If cats actually have nine lives, he probably used up about eight of them in that nine-day period.”
Madix is well known to the Mayfield community. He greeted guests who came into the business and could often be seen gazing out of windows.
Gibson told News Channel 5:
“All the customers, they loved him. A lot of people, they’d walk in the office, you know, over the last ten years and go, ‘where’s Maddox?’ and I’d say, ‘Well he’s in the back,’ or ‘he’s sleeping somewhere.’ He just lived a life of his own and now he’s living that life of his own at my house.”
Gibson hopes Madix’s story can serve as a source of inspiration for others.
“It’s a blessing for people to hear the story so they can take that and realize that great things can come out of terrible situations,” Gibson told the Associated Press. “If it’s uplifting to one person, then Madix has served his purpose on this planet.”