Duluth, Minnesota — After almost two months trapped underground, a cat named Drifter has been reunited with his family in Duluth, Minnesota. The 3-year-old tabby had disappeared on July 18, after slipping outside from the home of Clifton Nesseth and Ashley Comstock, only to be discovered trapped in a storm drain at a nearby construction site.
Drifter, who had always been an indoor cat with a longing for outdoor adventures, went missing amid neighborhood construction. Nesseth, Comstock, and their 12-year-old daughter, April Dressel, had searched tirelessly, hanging up posters around the city. Despite their efforts, the family had begun preparing for the worst, even planning a small memorial for their beloved pet.
However, hope resurfaced when local children reported hearing meowing from a storm drain near the construction site. The family rushed to the scene, hearing Drifter’s faint cries for help as they started digging through dirt and cutting through a landscape fabric to reach him.
“A little paw shot out of a tear in the fabric,” Nesseth recalled. “It was a tabby cat paw. We tore the fabric more, and then his head popped through.”
The dramatic rescue was captured on video by 16-year-old neighbor Dahlia Boberg. The footage shows Nesseth lifting the weakened but relieved Drifter from the ground as onlookers laugh in joy and disbelief.
“Drifter!” Nesseth exclaimed, holding his long-lost companion in the air. “He’s been under there the whole time! He’s really skinny.”
When he disappeared, Drifter weighed a healthy 15 pounds. After nearly eight weeks of surviving underground, his weight had dropped to just 6.5 pounds. The family believes Drifter may have wandered into a hole that was later sealed off, leaving him to subsist on whatever food and water he could find, possibly surviving on mice and sewer water.
The family suspects that April’s morning walk, where she had called out for Drifter, may have prompted the cat to move to a spot where he could be heard and found.
Following his rescue, Drifter spent the night curled up with April, and he is now on the road to recovery. Despite his dramatic ordeal, the family’s vet expects Drifter to make a full recovery.
“He’s a foodie, if a cat ever was,” Nesseth joked. “We’re trying to give him fluids, but he just wants to eat the syringe.”
Drifter’s name, fittingly, reflects his independent nature. The family adopted him after discovering him as a stray during a vacation in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, several years ago. Though he may have drifted far during his latest adventure, Drifter is finally home where he belongs.
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