Published Oct 1, 2025
Dajanera Alexandra Jones / Facebook.com
After two months of mourning the apparent loss of their beloved cat when a fire tore through their apartment building, an Alabama couple is crying tears of joy. Their boy, Moon, miraculously escaped and has come home!
The fire engulfed the Veranda at Taylor Oaks apartment complex in Montgomery, Alabama, where Dajanera Jones and Daniel Mobley lived with their orange tabby and white cat. Moon – a big, fluffy, longhaired lovebug – disappeared after the devastating fire. The couple thought their cat – who is so loved that his human mom calls him her son – had died when the flames ripped through the building in late June. They were heartbroken to lose Moon, and horrified to think about what he endured.
“I have just been going through so much grief and just regret, almost like survivor’s guilt of just surviving and knowing that I couldn’t get my son out,” Dajanera Jones told WSFA-TV. “We lived two months with him missing in the house.”
11Alive / Youtube.com
The incredible surprise and miracle reunion started when a neighbor told Daniel that she thought she spotted Moon walking around the property. In disbelief, Daniel spent days searching for his cat, to no avail. Then, the neighbor called again with wonderful news.
“Monday morning, which was exactly two months since the fire, I got a call from her saying he’s out there,” Daniel told the news station. “I go and run out here, and yeah, he’s sitting behind the fence, just sitting there. I spent the whole day trying to lure him out and finally got him.”
Moon was malnourished and missing some fur, but he had no injuries. He went to see his veterinarian. Then, Moon returned home to a jubilant and grateful family, which includes a dog Daniel describes as Moon’s best friend. As soon as they brought Moon home from the hospital, Moon “just collapsed next to him, crying, wanting to already get playing with him again, and he was ready to play with her,” Dajanera told reporters.
Dajanera Alexandra Jones / Facebook.com
She said that life now feels complete again, with her furry son back in her arms and demonstrating cattitude!
“He’s already back to being his arrogant, distinguished self,” she joked.
In a world with so much stress and tragedy, we are happy to see so many stories about miracle cats: cats who remarkably make it through a trauma that doesn’t seem possible to survive. Then, there are cats who go missing, and their heartbroken owners conclude they must be dead after a long time searching – but, some of these cats show up a long ways away, months or even years later. It’s astounding what a survival instinct felines have!
In August, we shared the story of a cat who somehow survived a nearly 400-foot fall into a Utah canyon – a fall that killed her owners. Search and rescue pilot Chelsea Tugaw was shocked to find a cat in a soft-sided cat carrier that looked like a backpack, thrown about 100 feet from the landing site. Chelsea took the cat – traumatized and severely injured, but still alive – to a fire station. The cat then went to Best Friends Animal Society, which provided intensive veterinary care to the cat they named Mirage.
Meanwhile, Chelsea couldn’t stop thinking about the cat, and she knew it was meant to be. She adopted Mirage, who is now named Mira. What an amazing story!
In September, we shared the equally horrifying ordeal of an Australian Burmese kitten named Pablo, who somehow survived falling into a washing machine and going through a full cycle. The 9-month-old beauty got tossed around in a 55-minute washing machine cycle and was barely alive with brain and lung injuries. But thanks to Small Animal Specialist Hospital’s Gold Coast location, veterinarians were able to resuscitate Pablo, who made a full recovery.
Cats like Moon, Mirage, and Pablo provide evidence to the legend that cats do, indeed, have nine lives!
