NEWS AND COMMENT – SOUTH BEACH, MIAMI: The Champlain Towers collapse has been worldwide news. Many of us have read about the sudden collapse of this condominium which might be due to poor quality concrete eroding in part perhaps because of the building’s position adjacent to the sea. That’s being investigated. The human death rate continues to climb and that the date of this article stands at 79. A further 61 people are potentially unaccounted for said the mayor.
It occurred to me, as I’m sure it occurred to others, that there must have been a number of domestic cats living in the building as full-time indoor cat companions. They must have died as well but Binx has emerged from the remains of the building. We don’t quite know how or what happened but we do know that he was living on the ninth floor when it collapsed last month.
Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.
The question in my mind is whether he survived the collapse which would seem to be extraordinary or whether he was outside of the building when it collapsed which would seem to be unlikely as he lived on the ninth floor, as mentioned. Or perhaps the story does not reflect what really happened. An animal shelter in the area, The Kitty Campus, posted on their Facebook page (can’t find it) that a black cat resembling Binx was found near the pile of rubble of the Surfside building on Thursday night. Binx was brought to their facility in Miami Beach.
A former resident of the collapsed tower block visited their facility on Friday and said that the cat was hers. Gina Nicole Vlasek, the co-founder of the shelter, said that she was pleased to help in any small way. Binx had been recognised by a volunteer who was feeding cats near the collapsed building.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said on Twitter: “After 16 long and incredibly difficult days, I’m able to share a small piece of good news — Binx from Champlain Towers South has been found. Thank you from the bottom of my heart and on behalf of our community to the team who played a role in reuniting him with his family.”
She also said that animal control is still hoping to trap pets that might have escaped the tragic collapse of this building. It collapsed in the early hours of June 24.
Comment: it seems unimaginable to me that any living creature could survive that collapse and if Binx did it is yet another testament to the incredible abilities of the domestic cat to survive under the most unimaginably difficult conditions. Binx is a black cat. Who said black cats were bad luck! 🙂 One last point: is the person who claimed Binx the genuine owner? Is this a made-up news story? Am I being too cynical? It seems too implausible to me. There are lots of community cats who are cared for wandering around Miami. It makes me wonder. It is a good story though.
SOME MORE ON CATS IN EMERGENCIES:
Wow, I had thought that every living creature in the building had perished.
My understanding is that three out of four of Binx’s family members survived the building collapse. One, Tayler Gonzalez, was not in the building at the time of the collapse. Her mother and sister, who were in their ninth floor unit, fell to the fifth floor and are currently hospitalized. The father, Edgar Gonzalez, is still missing and most likely did not survive. Perhaps Binx could have been in a safer location in the apartment during the collapse, as were the mother and daughter that survived the fall?