BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. — Rising water from Hurricane Ian’s historic storm surge trapped not only humans, but also animals in southwestern Florida.
On Wednesday, a woman shared a video of her boyfriend saving a cat stranded by floodwaters near Bonita Beach. The video, uploaded to Twitter by Megan Cruz Scavo, had 3.1 million views by Thursday morning.
The video shows her boyfriend, identified as Mike Ross, approaching an orange and white cat that is sitting on top of a structure outside a home. Ross picks it up and carries the wet cat toward the camera while wading through rushing knee-deep water.
Ross, who had evacuated to his parents’ home to shelter from the storm, told The Washington Post that he looked out of the window and saw the frightened feline sitting alone.
“The storm surge had rushed up quite a bit at that point,” Ross told The Post, saying the animal appeared terrified.
Ross rescued the animal around 2 p.m. EDT, which is shortly before the storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane.
Ross’ mother, Marybeth Ross, is credited with recording the video of her son, and can be heard in the background saying, “Look at Michael saving the kitty. Awww,” The Post reported.
Another video shared by Brian Entin, a NewsNation correspondent, on Twitter showed a man rescue a dog from a boat moored in Fort Myers, the Fort Myers News-Press reported. In the tweet, Entin said that the man went back and rescued a cat as well.