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Pic:North Carolina man and pet kitten rescued during Florence

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Robert Simmons.(Photo:Getty Images/Gallo)
Robert Simmons.(Photo:Getty Images/Gallo)

This man managed to rescue his adorable kitten during the catastrophic storm in North Carolina.

In a photo shared on Friday by Andrew Carter, a journalist with the News & Observer, on Twitter, Robert Simmons from New Bern, North Carolina, can be seen sitting in a rowboat while the drenched kitten is perched on his shoulder.

“Meet Robert Simmons, who was stuck in his house since last night when floodwaters began to rise in New Bern,” Andrew tweeted. “A boat came and rescued him just now.

“He was sad to leave his father but left with his kitten hugging his neck.”

Simmons followed this up with more tweets to explain, “Robert wanted his father to leave on the boat . . . his father wanted to stay behind.

“There was probably about a half-mile of waist-deep water between their place and the street that led out of the neighbourhood.”

The picture has since gone viral on social media, with almost 40 000 likes on Twitter alone and almost 12 000 retweets.

Robert told the News & Observer that he’d found the kitten trapped by flood waters with its mother, a feral cat, when he decided to rescue it.

“I feed him,” he said he explained why the kitten bonded with him. “I’m an animal lover.”

He said he wasn’t able to rescue the kitten’s mom because “she’s a wild cat.”

“I’ve got food. I’ve got water, that’s no problem. I just got tired. I’m ready to go,” the 40-year-old told People about why he’d chosen to leave with rescuers.

More than 4 300 homes and an estimated 300 businesses in New Bern alone were destroyed or damaged in the storm, which has now been downgraded from hurricane status. No Florence-related deaths in the city have been reported, according to ABC News.

This is “truly a blessing in such a significant, record-setting storm event”, New Bern city manager Mark Stephens said in a news conference on Monday.

Sources: People, The News and Observer , ABC News

 
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