Cat missing in Florida condo collapse found alive

There are eight lives left!

A cat that lived on the ninth floor of the collapsed Florida apartment building was miraculously found alive – and returned to its family – two weeks after the building collapsed, according to reports on Friday.

The skinny black feline, Binx, was spotted wandering near the rubble of Champlain Towers South in Surfside Thursday night and taken to the Kitty Campus rescue group, according to local outlet WSVN.

“The animals are part of the family, and it’s a miracle,” Maria Gaspari, a friend of the feline’s family, told the station, adding that she was overwhelmed with joy.

“I’m shaking right now,” she said. “In the midst of this sadness, we were hoping for good news for the survivors or the pets.”

Binx is owned by the Gonzalez family, formerly of Unit 904, who have since been reunited with the cat, the Miami Herald reported.

Angela Gonzalez and her daughter Deven were among the first to emerge from the rubble and were hospitalized. Deven’s older sister Tayler Gonzalez was not at home during the collapse and Father Edgar Gonzalez is still missing, the newspaper reported.

It’s unclear how the feline managed to avert disaster – but its resilience may offer the family a silver lining, Gaspari said.

“She’s actually Deven’s cat, so I’m sure she’ll be thrilled knowing that they found her cat.” I can not believe it. I just couldn’t believe it when we got the confirmation. It’s a miracle for the entire Surfside community, ”she said.

Pet owners who did not retrieve their animals from the collapsed tower before it was demolished were suffering unimaginable grief, their lawyer said last week.

But the heartbreaking reunion can give the other residents of the building a brief respite from the stress and grief, Kitty Campus co-founder Gina Nicole Vlasek said in a Facebook post.

“All we needed was a ray of hope in this tragedy… Today has been one of the most incredible days,” Vlasek wrote. “One of the survivors came to see the cat and to determine if it was his family’s cat and IT WAS!”