Three weeks after Ian, hard-hit Floridians are still searching for lost pets

[douglas9]

FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. — As the water from Hurricane Ian’s storm surge rose, Joseph Salvaggio climbed into his attic and huddled with his two cats. They stayed there for 20 hours, Mittens and Zoey keeping their owner warm as he waited for someone to rescue them.

“We were trapped in the attic with no place to go,” Salvaggio, 83, said. “They laid there very quietly. They were very, very good.”

When rescue workers helped him out of his wrecked home the next day in Fort Myers Beach — one of the hardest hit parts of Southwest Florida — Salvaggio gently dropped the cats down. Indoor cats spooked by the storm and the strangers, they darted through the opening left where the front door had been torn off its hinges.

Salvaggio lost many precious belongings, including the urn holding the ashes of his wife of 43 years, Arlene, who died in 2021. But losing his cats, cherished pets that he and his wife had raised, was unbearable.

“They’re my family,” he said.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/21/hurricane-ian-missing-pets/

[hlthe2b]

1. Brutally heart-breaking...

I can only hope we'll hear of some miraculous recoveries and reunifications.

[niyad]

2. Heartsick KNR

[snowybirdie]

3. There is so

much loss here. It'll be years to rebuild and recreate.

[SlimJimmy]

4. Unfortunately, natural disasters can be very hard on our fur babies.

Especially kittie cats. They tend to hide rather than seek help, and this always makes it more difficult to recover them. The good news is that they tend to return to what they know after a few weeks. Hopefully, this is what will happen in this case.

[Deuxcents]

5. 😹

My kitty hid under the bed in the corner n didn’t come out for 2 days. No food or water n no trip to the litter box. The pressure was popping my ears so I can only imagine for our fur kids. Hopefully, his companions are chipped so they can be found n reunited.