This archive report was first published on 23 October 2019.
On a stormy night in northern Italy, a couple's life was saved by their two curious cats, Simba and Mose. The cats' incessant meowing woke Claudio Piana and his wife Sabrina Pellegrini, allowing them to escape a landslide that destroyed their home in Campo Ligure.
According to Claudio Piana, the couple had gone to bed on Monday night as fierce rains lashed the Liguria region, causing rivers to burst their banks and sparking landslides. Unbeknownst to them, one such landslide had damaged the house's foundations.
As the couple rushed out to their car, they found themselves trapped by a sea of mud. They were rescued by firefighters, who later told them that the house was too dangerous to inhabit.
"My wife got up because Simba and Mose, our cats, were making a noise and woke us up," Claudio Piana told the Secolo XIX newspaper. "She realised they were playing with a piece of plaster which had just fallen off the ceiling. Then we saw cracks opening in the walls," he added.
Thanks to their quick thinking and the alertness of their cats, the couple was able to escape the devastating landslide. "At least Simba and Mose survived," Claudio Piana said, reflecting on the ordeal.
