Two Goats Lead Rescuers to Family Trapped in Tornado Rubble

When you're trapped under tornado debris in total darkness, the last thing you expect to hear is your goats bleating above you.

But that's exactly what happened to the Sloat family in Enid, Oklahoma, when an EF4 tornado tore through their neighborhood. The powerful storm reduced their home to rubble and sealed them inside their cellar with a collapsed debris pile blocking the door.

"There was glass shattering, we could hear bricks falling, and our cellar door dented in," Mary Sloat recalled. Above ground, the destruction was complete. The small shelter that had housed their beloved goats, Percy and Penny, had vanished entirely.

The family feared the worst for the animals they'd raised since birth. "These are goats that our whole family raised, and my daughter showed one of them," Mary said. But as they waited in darkness, hoping for rescue, they heard something impossible.

"My daughter and I could have sworn that we heard goat noises, and I thought, there's no way," Mary said. What they couldn't see was that Percy and Penny had somehow survived, and they were standing directly on top of the debris pile above the cellar.

When rescuers arrived and surveyed the devastation, the goats caught their attention. "He said, when we came around the back of the house, your goats were standing on the pile of bricks, and we were pretty sure that's probably where the cellar was," Mary explained.

That simple observation gave rescuers the crucial clue they needed to locate the family and begin digging. The Sloats were eventually pulled to safety, reunited with their remarkably resilient pets.

Sunny's Take

The Sloat family is now rebuilding their lives, armed with a story that seems almost too perfect to be true. Percy and Penny didn't just survive an EF4 tornado that obliterated their shelter. They also became beacons, standing exactly where their family needed help most.

"On days whenever they're being ornery and they headbutt me, or they nip at my fingers, I'm going to have to remember this," Mary said with a laugh. Sometimes the smallest members of our family turn out to be the biggest heroes.