When volunteers started the process of cleaning up on the Curtis Petersen farm following the June 17 tornado, they came upon an unusual sight. Plastered to a board with mud was a small kitten.

“She couldn’t move and she couldn’t meow,” said Dr. Dan Smith of Albert Lea Veterinary Clinic. “Her litter mates were in the trees. They didn’t make it.”

The kitten, who Smith and his staff have named Spinner, was brought into Smith’s clinic that day, but he was out of the office until early the next week. She was cleaned up and found to have a broken leg.

“She had a fracture of the tibia between the ankle and knee,” Smith said.

Since there was no infection present, Smith opted to fix the leg instead of amputate.

“Three-legged cats have some appeal, but kittens have such small bones I was able to fix it quicker than I could have amputated. I opted to fix the leg and be done with it,” the veterinarian said. He put a pin in Spinner’s leg surgically.

Smith is confident that was a good decision. “She’s got a great presence for a farm cat,” he said. “She’s not a complainer at all.”

Spinner will be put up for adoption in about a month — after she has time to heal, Smith said, adding prospective homes will be screened carefully for this special kitty.

“She was a little something good to come out of all this,” the veterinarian said.

Spinner wasn’t the only victim of the tornadoes he saw. A large, outdoor farm dog had been chained to a garage when the twister hit. That dog has a broken leg. Because of its age and size, Smith said he gave the dog something for the pain, and it will just have to heal. He likened it to the elderly who break hips and need to take it easy while they heal.

The day after the tornadoes, a family found a pair of kittens in the parking lot near the old Walmart store and brought them into his office to be examined.

“It’s possible they were dropped out of the sky by a tornado,” Smith said. “Their injuries were consistent with that.”

The family who found the kittens has decided to keep them, he said.

The Humane Society of Freeborn County had a number of “found” animals following the tornadoes, said Director Christa Stieler. Animals that were frightened and ran or were carried away returned home, only to find there was no longer a home there.

“There haven’t been a lot of people calling about missing animals,” Stieler said.

For those animals that were found following the tornadoes, volunteers have taken those animals in.

“People seem to be OK with those animals being at their houses,” Stieler said.

The shelter took in a large, older dog after last weekend’s storms and no one has claimed him yet, she said.

“Animals are frightened during loud storms and they run,” she said.

The same can be said of fireworks. While people like the bangs and flashes associated with the Fourth of July fireworks, dogs don’t.

“Don’t take your dog to the fireworks,” Stieler said. “If they have any fear of noises, put them in the house. Put them in a crate until it’s over.”

The day after the fireworks display usually finds the kennels at the shelter full with dogs that have run after being spooked by the loud booms and flashes.