Twenty-three days. That is how long a cat survived trapped among the ruins of the OPP 26 building in Caraballeda, La Guaira, following the magnitude 7,2 and 7,5 earthquakes that shook northern Venezuela on 24 June 2026.
Andrés Carvajal, a 21-year-old student and volunteer with the Pico y Pala UCV association, had spent ten days unsuccessfully searching for a missing classmate in Caracas when his team moved to La Guaira. There, amid the rubble of the collapsed complex, he heard something he did not expect. He crawled into the ruins with cat food in hand and managed to lure it out alive.
The animal was taken to a camp with veterinarians on duty, amid a tragedy that has already claimed more than 5.000 lives and left thousands missing. A small survivor amid so much loss.
