A cat, thought to have been killed in severe bushfires that ravaged Australia, has reappeared after 24 days.
Lesley and Tony Maly lost their home in the tourist town Wye River, Victoria, in the Christmas Day fires. At least 116 houses were destroyed by the massive blaze. They also lost their cat, Muppet.
On Sunday night, Tony believed he spotted Muppet so he left some food out for the missing cat, according to the Australian Associated Press. The food disappeared overnight, and on Monday, a scraggly-looking Muppet emerged from the burned landscape.
"I burst into tears when I saw him," Lesley told AAP on Tuesday. "We feel like we've got our family back. Everything else is gone, but at least we've got our animals."
Tony, a volunteer firefighter, watched his house burn to the ground but continued battling to save other people's properties. "I saw my house on fire and I watched it burn down," Maly told Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Dec. 29, according to Sky News.
"We've lost our cat. Hopefully he's somewhere, that's all that matters really that we find him," he said. "We've got the dog, so that's all good."
In some good news, the dog now has its mate Muppet back.