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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Courtesy of the Joplin Globe (Joplin, Missouri) at:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x1533018372/Animal-rescue-group-reunites-lost-tornado-cat-with-owner">http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x1533018372/Animal-rescue-group-reunites-lost-tornado-cat-with-owner</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Animal rescue group reunites lost tornado cat with owner <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>JOPLIN, Mo. — It was a long, hot wait in a darkened, tornado-splintered neighborhood in central Joplin.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> The women who were on an animal rescue mission weren’t even sure that the gray tabby they had caught was the same gray tabby that had been reported missing from that neighborhood by his owner, Becky Ashcraft, after the May 22 tornado.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> After more than an hour, Ashcraft finally arrived to see whether the tabby was her Ducky. The women led her to the cat, who they hoped would be able to go home that night after living for two months amid the rubble.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>‘YEAH’<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>As Ashcraft peered into the animal carrier, one of the women asked: “Is that your baby?”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Overcome with emotion, Ashcraft could manage only one word before breaking into tears: “Yeah.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The reunion was the bright spot on Tuesday night for the women, a group of concerned residents who wanted to trap and rescue what they said could be more than a dozen cats living in the rubble of the Hampshire Terrace Apartments along 20th Street.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“I would hope that someone would do it for me,” said Megan McLaughlin, who has five dogs and two cats at her Oswego, Kan., home. “My animals are my life.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>McLaughlin, who helped organize the effort, said she thinks the cats are neither feral animals nor strictly strays, but that they have been lost from their owners since the tornado. Their glowing eyes, reflecting the beams of a spotlight or flashlight, can often be seen peering out of the rubble at night, she said.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“They have to be people’s pets because they’re waiting on the top floors of these half-apartments,” she said.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> FOOD AND WATER<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> The cats have recently gotten help from nearby neighbors and workers. Lisa Butler, of Webb City, said that since the weekend, she has set out food and water daily for the cats underneath a coffee table she found in the rubble.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> With the 100-degree heat and the apartment complex scheduled for demolition soon, the women knew they had to move quickly. On Tuesday night, they set up traps at the complex to try to capture some of the animals. They planned to house any rescued cats themselves until they could find either the owners or a permanent home for them.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> By Wednesday morning, no other cats besides Ducky had been caught. But McLaughlin said she refuses to give up. She said she and others in the rescue group would likely continue to leave food and water out for lost tornado animals and try to coax them out of the rubble.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“We will (continue) as long as we can,” she said. “We’ll continue to go over.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Dan Pekarek, director of the Joplin Health Department, said an animal control officer also was at the apartment complex Tuesday night. He said such “targeted” trapping efforts by the department are winding down in Joplin as debris is cleared and any leftover stray animals are slowly moving out of the disaster area.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> The department’s normal trapping program, he said, is based on individual residents’ complaints. In those cases, traps are lent to residents, as available, for use on their own property to catch stray animals, which are taken to the Joplin Humane Society’s Animal Adoption and Resource Center.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> The center is not authorized to set traps itself, but traps are available for residents’ use for a refundable $30 deposit, said Executive Director Karen Aquino. The shelter accepts stray animals that are trapped by residents, she said.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>‘A SWEETHEART’<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Ducky, a friendly gray cat, was the only critter captured Tuesday, and the reunion was worth the effort, rescuers said. The group had nabbed him early Tuesday night and kept him in a cage, and later in an animal carrier inside an air-conditioned car, until Ashcraft could arrive to determine if he was her missing cat.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> Ashcraft was living at the Connecticut Pointe apartments at 20th Street and Connecticut Avenue when the tornado struck, destroying the complex. Now living in McCune, Kan., she hadn’t seen Ducky since then.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> He was noticeably thinner, she said, but he also was calm and apparently happy to be back in his owner’s arms.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>“I didn’t think he was dead; I just assumed that somebody had found him because he’s a sweetheart,” she said, cradling Ducky. “This is great. I appreciate it so much. I can’t believe it.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>-----------------------------<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>An amazed Becky Ashcraft cradles her cat, Ducky, on Tuesday after a rescue group found the kitty and reunited him with his owner. That was more than 10 weeks after the two were separated in the May 22 tornado.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><img border=0 width=347 height=500 id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image001.jpg@01CC541C.12B4FB90" alt="http://www.joplinglobe.com/archive/x541063405/g0002580000000000002c25b9c4d53e3cb603c128d973e6219e61ff0eea.jpg"><span lang=EN><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN><a href="http://www.joplinglobe.com/archive/x541063405/g0002580000000000002c25b9c4d53e3cb603c128d973e6219e61ff0eea.jpg">http://www.joplinglobe.com/archive/x541063405/g0002580000000000002c25b9c4d53e3cb603c128d973e6219e61ff0eea.jpg</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Seeya round town, Moscow.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Tom Hansen<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Moscow, Idaho <o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>