Lavern the cat survives 16 days in Joplin tornado rubble

This is one tough pussy. Lavern the cat survived 16 days under the rubble of its family’s Joplin home after the EF5 tornado wiped the house out on May 22.

The Joplin Globe reported that Terrla Cruse returned to the home Tuesday to get paperwork for the family’s Federal Emergency Management Agency application when she and her sister heard meowing. She blew it off because she didn’t think there was any way her 13-year-old cat had survived after more than two weeks. But once she heard the cat’s meows, Cruse and her sister started digging. But the meowing stopped.