Woman reunited with cat 22 days after he goes missing in single-vehicle crash near Atlanta, Georgia

The accident happened after Brooks became distracted by Tom, who she'd just let out of his carrier while traveling on the interstate. She recalled traveling southbound on the highway with Tom next to her inside the cat carrier, until she took him out to relieve some of his apparent stress. "He was crying in a way that was very disturbing," she said. "He was on his carrier at one point and it was like he was surfing. I was like 'get down. "' Brooks crashed but didn't strike any other vehicles. She went to a hospital and received treatment for injuries to her head and hand. She later discovered her cat was missing from her car. Brooks, who works as an assistant professor of sociology at Troy University Dothan with a specialization in race relations, said she saw a collaboration of different races of people stop on the side of the highway to offer her help. "Losing my cat restored my faith in humanity," Brooks said. "I looked like the 'Walking Dead' because my head was bleeding a lot. People were praying over me, and telling me they loved me. I looked up at one point there was like a sea of black and white faces looking over me."