The story of a cat named Smoka who survived 26 days buried under tons of fire debris has captivated the nation. "Nine lives or not, this cat had no business being alive," Dennie Fitzgerald told Paw Nation.
Fitzgerald, from Franklin, Ohio, was watching TV at 4:38 in the morning of August 10th when the television suddenly turned off, he told Paw Nation. Suspecting a blown fuse, Fitzgerald investigated and discovered a fire brewing. He immediately woke his tenants, one of whom was Sandy LaPierre and her cat Smoka. "But Smoka wouldn't come out," said Fitzgerald. "I had to force the cat's owner down the stairs because she didn't want to leave her cat."
LaPierre told Paw Nation, "When my landlord Dennie kicked the door down, it scared Smoka and she panicked and ran under the bed." The year-and-a-half-old cat, Smoka, who had her name long before the fire, has been with LaPierre since she was a six-week old kitten.
According to Fitzgerald, the building, constructed in 1890 with solid oak beams, burned for six hours and collapsed. "Five gas lines erupted," he said. "The fire department had to use 30,000 gallons of water on it to put the fire out."
"I thought she was gone," LaPierre said of her cat. "I couldn't hardly eat or sleep. I had people out looking for her."
Nothing, it seemed, could have survived a fire of that magnitude.
But 26 days later on September 4th, workers from Stark Wrecking Company were sifting through the rubble, when they made a stunning discovery, reports the Middletown Journal. "I was running the backhoe," Clarence Witte recounted to Paw Nation, "when my cousin hollered that there was a cat. I figured it was a burnt, dead cat, but I looked out the window and saw the cat's eyes, which were just as big as saucers." The cat had been buried under 16 feet of debris and was lying still. "That backhoe weighs 40,000 pounds, so I don't how why it didn't get squished," Witte said.
Working carefully by hand, workers dug the cat out and laid it on top of the rubble. "Its body was stiff," said Witte. "The only thing moving was its head." But the cat started "limbering up" and began moving around. Workers called Fitzgerald, who had an employee take Smoka away in a pet carrier, then called LaPierre.
"I dropped everything when Dennie [Fitzgerald] called and I went down to see her," LaPierre said. "It was incredible. I cried when I saw her. Smoka heard my voice and started meowing."
Smoka was taken to the Krebs Kohler Minnix veterinary clinic where she was found to be dehydrated with small lacerations and abrasions, said vet staff member Peggy Andrews. "She only weighed about four and a quarter pounds," Andrews told Paw Nation. "She's a sweet little cat and was otherwise well."
"The vet took care of her for free," said LaPierre. Smoka is getting her health back and is doing great, LaPierre said, and "eating like crazy." The amazing tale has attracted national media attention. "The TODAY Show called," exclaimed Fitzgerald. "They want to fly us all out to New York!" (The trip was later reportedly canceled by NBC due to the anniversary of 9/11.)
But the story isn't over. LaPierre, who found another place to live, said her new landlord won't let her keep a cat at the apartment. For now, Smoka is staying with a friend in the next building over until LaPierre finds a new place to live. "There's no way I'm giving up my cat," said LaPierre. "She's pretty amazing. She was trapped in all that rubble for 26 days!"
12/02
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