News Archive - Smokey

*The following article is taken from Jacksonville.com*

By GORDON JACKSON , The Times-Union

ST. MARYS -- Four months ago, Aprylla Hall compared her cat, Smokey, to the comic strip character Garfield. He was fat, lazy and content to sleep most of the time.

Now, Hall said she believes there's a lot more to the 4-year-old Siamese/ragdoll mix -- even though he's still fat, lazy and likes his sleep.

Smokey was left behind in Hall's Biloxi, Miss., home when she evacuated hours before Hurricane Katrina struck. Hall said she planned to return as soon as possible after the storm passed.

A CNN telecast three days after Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, however, showed her neighborhood was destroyed. All that remained was the concrete porch.

"I never imagined the storm would be so bad," she said. "There was nothing left of my house."

"I don't think you could make this cat much happier," Aprylla Hall says of Smokey, who was returned to her after wandering near her destroyed Biloxi, Miss., home for months after Hurricane Katrina struck. CHRIS VIOLA/The Times-Union

"I was mad at myself for leaving them," she said. "My heart was totally broken. I should have let them sit on my lap."

Several days after the storm, rescue workers found Hall's dog trapped in the rubble of her next-door neighbor's house. Hall went to Biloxi about two weeks later and brought her dog back to St. Marys, where she was staying with her sister.

Nola was safe. But there was still no sign of Smokey.

As time passed, Hall said she began to lose hope. She said she never expected that her very domesticated cat would have the survival instincts to live outside four months.

In fact, Hall, who now lives in St. Marys, was planning to change her cell phone to a local number after New Year's Day. The only reason she kept the number from Mississippi this long is that she hoped someone would find her cat and call the number on its tag.

Then, her phone rang the day after Christmas.

Volunteers with Hurricane Pets Rescue told her they found Smokey on Christmas Eve about three blocks from what remained of her home. Smokey was begging for food from residents living in a trailer provided by the federal government.

Celine Albano, president and CEO of Hurricane Pets Rescue, said Smokey is one of many pets her organization has reunited with their masters since Katrina.

"There are still animals we are rescuing," Albano said. "People get help from everywhere. Animals don't."

Albano, who is a flight attendant for American Airlines, said she and other flight attendants for the airline have been volunteering to reunite pets with their owners, across the nation.

"Every time we do a happy ending, I'm just in tears," she said. "There's a lot of joy involved."

Hall said she was shocked when she got the call that Smokey had been found. And she said she was grateful when an American Airlines flight attendant hand-delivered Smokey to Hall at Jacksonville International Airport on Jan. 7 for a tearful reunion.

Hall said she was expecting Smokey to be afraid or nervous after the flight. Instead, Smokey recognized Hall immediately.

When she brought Smokey into the duplex she's now renting in St. Marys, the cat settled in right away.

"He came in, lay down on the couch and watched the TV," she said.

The only change she's noticed in her cat, Hall said, is he purrs almost non-stop now.

"I don't think you could make this cat much happier," she said. "I feel blessed and lucky."

gordon.jacksonjacksonville.com, (912) 729-3672