Cat Accidentally Thrown Away With a Couch Is Rescued From Landfill and Reunited With His Family

Neal Augenstein stood in his neighborhood holding a bag of treats and calling Mike's name for two straight days. The 8-year-old domestic short hair had not come home for dinner, and the search turned up nothing near the sewers or around the block. Augenstein then recalled the three old couches his family had recently sent away. One of them had been torn and used as a hiding spot by Mike and the other cat. A quick check confirmed the ripped couch was the one missing from the junk warehouse, already hauled to the I-66 Transfer Station. At the transfer station in Fairfax County, heavy equipment operator Mauricio Martinez spotted movement in the deep trash pit. He saw the black and white cat perched on a narrow ledge about 15 feet above the asphalt. Martinez called his supervisor Joshua Murphy. The crew positioned a loader bucket beneath the ledge and spent ten minutes coaxing Mike to step aboard. Once on the ground the cat bolted, crawled through a tunnel into a storage room, and hid until animal control officers captured him. Mike carried a microchip. The reporter drove to the Lorton animal shelter where the cat had been transferred after the rescue. Augenstein brought Mike home and noted the faint smell of the transfer station still on his fur. He said, “There were so many hands touched Mike, and there were so many places where things could have gone very badly, but things turned out perfectly, and I'm delighted to have him home.” Mike settled back into his usual spot on the new couch while Augenstein thanked the landfill crew and animal control staff who had made the reunion possible.