Billy Paschall lost his house and everything in it when flash floods tore through McCaysville, Georgia, last Wednesday night. Five days later, while talking to a local news crew standing in the wreckage, his seventh and last missing cat walked back into frame.
Paschall was trapped on his porch for hours during the flooding as water rose nearly five feet inside his home. His seven cats, he told CBS News Atlanta, were “totally freaking out” because they “don’t like water,” and climbed on top of small cat houses to stay dry while he waited for rescue.
A police boat eventually reached him and pulled him and his cats aboard. But in the chaos of the rescue, all seven cats went missing.
Paschall spent the following days searching for them. One by one, most came home. By Monday, only one was still missing: a cat named Bounce.
CBS reporter Daniel Wilkerson was interviewing Paschall live at his flood-wrecked property that day when Bounce appeared.
“What’s it doing, boy? That’s my Bounce,” Paschall said mid-interview.
“That’s the one you were looking for?” Wilkerson asked. “The last one?”
“I hadn’t seen him ’til right now,” Paschall said. “It’s a relief.”
Paschall credited a local TV meteorologist, a fellow cat lover, for a tip that helped bring his pets home. “She told me if I put the cat box out, that it would make them feel like I wanted them to come to me or something like that,” he said. The trick worked, and his cats returned home gradually over the following days.
The flooding itself left Paschall with nothing. “It’s been terrible, man, I lost everything,” he told CBS News Atlanta. “The water got up pretty high, almost like 5 feet or so inside my home.”
His house is empty and his belongings are gone, but Paschall said having all seven cats back gives him something to hold onto as he starts over.
