A family’s cat was missing for two months when they finally found him — underground in their Minnesota neighborhood’s sewer system.
The “dramatic meowing of a distressed cat” ringing out from underground is what led the family to make the “unreal” discovery and dig their cat Drifter out from under the sealed storm drain, Clifton Nesseth said in a Sept. 11 post on Facebook.
Drifter went missing July 18, the same day a road construction crew sealed off the Duluth sewers and covered a big hole into the tunnel system with a large metal plate and “tons of massive rocks,” Nesseth said in the post.
He and his wife, Ashley Comstock, worried maybe Drifter had gotten in the way and was crushed by the equipment, he said in the post.
Still, the family held out hope that they would find their beloved cat. Every few days, Nesseth and his daughter April called out to Drifter behind their home.
“So much time had passed that we had made plans to hold a memorial service, to help create some closure for all of us,” he said.
Then on Sept. 10, “April burst into the house” with news that some of the neighborhood kids had “heard a cat meowing from underground,” he said. Nesseth and Comstock “went outside to investigate.”
They heard the “dramatic meowing” from beneath the “several hundred” pounds of metal, dirt and rocks, and a “heavy duty landscaping fabric mat,” Nesseth said.
“We grabbed a shovel and started to dig,” he said. “... Once we were able to remove some of the dirt, and prop that metal form with a nearby stone, the clawed paw of a tabby cat shot out of a small hole in the mat, reaching from inside the sewer, out into the open air.”
Nesseth dug at the hole with his hands to make the opening a bit wider, and out popped “the paws and the face of this tabby cat,” he said.
“We started to realize this apparition from our neighborhood’s Hades might be… Drifter?” he said. “... This cat, which was almost certainly Drifter, complete with collar and tags, began hoisting himself out of the hole, while I reached down and pulled him out of (the) tear in the fabric, inadvertently lifting him into the air in the fashion of that iconic opening scene to the Lion King.”
Multiple news stations published a video showing the extraordinary moment with neighbors gathered to watch.
The cat came out of the sewer “clean and seemingly himself” — but clearly malnourished, Nesseth said. They took Drifter to the emergency veterinarian, where they found he had lost almost 9 pounds.
“...They weighed him in at 6.5 lbs,” Nesseth said. “When he disappeared in July, he was probably close to 15 lbs, and not that chunky or too overweight, just strong and formidable.”
Veterinary staff gave the family specific refeeding instructions to follow, he said.
“He is otherwise completely himself. Snuggly, vibrant, and extremely obsessed with food,” Nesseth said.
Northern News Now interviewed the family at their home and published a video showing Drifter urgently lapping up the carefully measured “convalescence fluid” the vet had prescribed for him.
Drifter was likely able to survive because of the exact right amount of rainfall over the summer, Nesseth said. A little less, and the cat might have died of dehydration.
“A little more, and he may have drowned in the sewers of Duluth,” he said.
Cats need to eat at least every three days before they start to shut down, he says the veterinarian told them.
“...So I cannot imagine what he scavenged to survive over the last months,” he said. “How many terrible ends came to the rats and mice that chanced upon his hungry and unstoppable nature?”
Nesseth says his family learned “that one should keep their ear to the ground, keep hoping, and never underestimate” their cat’s resilience.
Several people commented that the story was “incredibly amazing.”
Duluth is about a 155-mile drive north from Minneapolis.
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