Looking Back: The Pilot Who Adopted a Kitten on a Hurricane Rescue Flight
On Oct. 12, 2024, Southwest Airlines Captain Matthew Prebish flew 145 shelter cats and dogs out of the Southeast and into Wisconsin. He had not planned to adopt one of them, and he still went home with a kitten named Avery.
Southwest shared the news two days later, on Monday, Oct. 14. The reporting from that week covers the flight and the adoption. It does not say how Avery is doing today.
Why the animals were moved
Greater Good Charities, Southwest Airlines and Lucky Dog Animal Rescue organized the emergency flight after Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The animals came from shelters in Tennessee and Florida. They were first moved to South Carolina. After Helene devastated that state, they were flown from Myrtle Beach to Milwaukee, according to Southwest. The goal was to find them new homes.
Southwest said the flight also delivered humanitarian supplies to residents affected by Helene in North Carolina. Separately, Greater Good Charities and Southwest provided over 6,000 pounds of humanitarian aid packs to hard-hit communities.
The dog person and the explorer
Newser reported that Prebish considers himself more of a dog person. Then he met Avery, a 3-month-old kitten who had been scooped up from a shelter in East Tennessee.
He was drawn to her “explorer-type personality.” Before long he was thinking she would be a nice surprise for his wife and 6-year-old son back home in Dallas.
Lucky Dog’s CEO, Mirah Horowitz, said: “It was love at 30,000 feet.” She added that Prebish was not expecting to adopt a hurricane evacuee when he agreed to fly. Lucky Dog had not planned a mid-flight adoption either. Some things, she said, are meant to be.
Outnumbered at home
Avery was set to join a full house that already included another cat, Smalls, and two dogs: Wrigley, a 2-year-old golden retriever, and Tahoe, a 9-year-old Lab. “We’re outnumbered now, animals to people,” Prebish told the Post.
Where the other passengers went
The rest of the group went to eight shelters, including the Humane Animal Welfare Society and Elmbrook Humane Society. There they were to receive medical care before becoming available for adoption, each one with a chance at a home.
