'She Looked Into His Eyes, and He Was Sold'

What's part of Matthew Prebish's job as a volunteer pilot after natural disasters: evacuating displaced animals. What's not necessarily part of the job: adopting one of those uprooted cuties. But that's exactly what Prebish ended up doing after a weather delay earlier this month in Milwaukee, where the Southwest Airlines pilot by day had "time to mingle with some of his passengers" on an emergency airlift aircraft he was flying with close to 150 cats and dogs displaced by hurricanes Helene and Milton, per the Washington Post. One of those passengers on that Oct. 12 flight was Avery, a 3-month-old kitten that had been scooped up from an East Tennessee shelter.

Although Prebish considers himself to be more of a dog person, he was drawn in by Avery's "explorer-type personality" and started thinking she would be a nice surprise for his wife and 6-year-old son back home in Dallas. "Then she looked into his eyes, and he was sold," the Post notes. (Check out a short video of Prebish and his new pet.) The two-hour flight where Prebish met Avery was arranged through Virginia's Lucky Dog Animal Rescue nonprofit, Southwest, and Greater Good Charities, in an effort to clear out local animal shelters after the storms for the expected influx of displaced pets.

"It was love at 30,000 feet," Lucky Dog CEO Mirah Horowitz tells People. "I don't think Captain Matt was expecting to adopt a hurricane evacuee from Tennessee when he agreed to fly this amazingly special flight, but some things are meant to be." Avery will join Prebish, his family, another cat named Smalls, and two dogs—a 2-year-old golden retriever named Wrigley and a 9-year-old Lab named Tahoe. "We're outnumbered now, animals to people," Prebish tells the Post. But "she's been exactly what we expected. It was definitely the right call." Check out the Post for lots of photos of Avery and some of the other animals rescued. (More uplifting news stories.)