Drifter had been missing for so long that his family was beginning to say goodbye.
The 3-year-old tabby slipped out of his home in Duluth, Minnesota, on July 18. He was an indoor cat with a restless, curious spirit, and his family believed he may have wandered toward a nearby construction site.
Then he vanished.
His owners, Clifton Nesseth and Ashley Comstock, searched everywhere. Their 12-year-old daughter, April, helped look for him. They hung posters, called his name, and kept hoping he would somehow come home.
But days turned into weeks.
Nearly eight weeks passed.
The family was so heartbroken that they had begun planning a small memorial for him. They thought Drifter was gone.
Then neighborhood kids came running with unbelievable news.
They had heard meowing from a storm drain near the construction site.
The family rushed over and began digging through dirt and cutting through landscape fabric. Then, from a tear in the fabric, a tiny paw appeared.
It was a tabby paw.
A moment later, Drifter’s head popped through.
The cat who had been missing for nearly two months had been under the ground the whole time.
Neighbors gathered as Nesseth lifted Drifter into his arms, shocked and overjoyed. Drifter was alive, still wearing his collar, but painfully thin. When he disappeared, he weighed about 15 pounds. After surviving underground, he weighed only about 6.5 pounds.
His family believes Drifter may have crawled into a hole that later became sealed, trapping him beneath the construction site. Somehow, he survived by eating and drinking whatever he could find underground.
Then, on the morning he was found, April had gone out calling his name.
His family believes Drifter may have heard her voice through the sewer pipes and moved toward the sound until he reached the place where he could finally be heard.
That thought makes his rescue even more emotional.
After nearly eight weeks underground, hungry, trapped, and alone, Drifter may have followed the voice of the girl who loved him back toward home.
That night, he slept curled beside April on her bed.
He is now gaining weight again, and his veterinarian expects him to make a full recovery. His appetite has returned with force, which did not surprise his family. Drifter had always been a food-loving cat, and now he seems determined to make up for everything he missed.
His story is heartbreaking because no one knew he was so close.
He was under the streets, hidden beneath a place his family had searched around, crying where almost no one could hear him.
But somehow, he survived.
And when the right people finally heard that small meow from the storm drain, Drifter’s long, frightening journey underground came to an end.
The cat named Drifter had wandered too far.
But against all odds, he found his way back to the family that never stopped missing him.
