Missing cat navigates two miles of sewers to get home

A lost cat took ten days to find its way home by navigating two miles of SEWERS – and was found under a manhole cover just yards from its front door.

Black cat Midnight got lost in a storm drain but used her incredible homing instinct to negotiate the maze of underground tunnels.

Her owner Jeanette Young, 39, had given up hope of find her when a neighbour heard faint meows from a manhole cover outside her home.

She called water company Severn Trent which dispatched two workmen to rescue the bedraggled moggie – who was filthy but unhurt.

The workmen said the nearest place that Midnight could have entered the sewer system was two miles away.

Delighted Jeanette said: ”It is absolutely amazing. She is so clever. How on earth did she find her way back home underground?

”She was just a few steps away from our front door so she did a brilliant job of navigating herself around. It is like a Disney movie, or a comic book story about a super cat.

”We are all delighted she is home. She is doing very well, although she was a bit smelly when she first came out.

”When she went missing I was waiting for the call to say she had been run over, as her sister Star was a few weeks ago.

”But then no call came and when she turned up it was a great, great moment.”

Midnight disappeared from the family’s home in Cheltenham, Glos., on March 1 shortly after her sister was run over.

On March 11 a neighbour living five doors away heard meows coming from a drain and called workers from Severn Trent, who pulled her out.

They said the nearest access point to the sewers was a storm drain by a small stream two miles away.

The woman then took Midnight back to her home in Cheltenham and took her to a local vets the next day, where they found her microchip and called Jeanette.

Mother-of-two Jeanette, a managing consultant, looks after Midnight with her children Helena, 11, and Bella, six, said: ”I was so excited to tell the girls, it was a lovely moment.

”It was very sad to lose Star, who was run over just before their first birthday, and I was dreading having to tell the girls Midnight had died, too.

”It’s great to have her back and it has certainly put a smile on the girls’ faces.”

Schoolgirl Helena, 11, said: ”It was great to see her again. We all thought she had gone. But she’s a resourceful cat and obviously knows where home is.

”On the first morning she was back, she woke us all up meowing around the house at 6am. But we didn’t mind. It was just a relief to have her back.”

Her younger sister Bella, six, added: ”I cried for ages when Star died. It was very sad. But we were so happy to see Midnight again. We missed her and were worried she wasn’t coming back.”

The girls and their mother rewarded Midnight for her efforts with a tasty salmon dinner and lots of cuddles.

Vet Alison Jones, of Vets on the Park in Cheltenham and Tewkesbury, said: ”Cats are pretty resilient animals.

”They are natural hunters, so are capable of finding their own food.

”Unlike dogs, though, they cannot go for more than about five days without eating, so this cat must have managed to find some food while she was missing.”