A Massachusetts couple spent more than 30 terrifying hours searching for their missing cat, only to discover he had been trapped beneath their brand-new bathtub the entire time.
Melissa and Ed Kirby had contractors working on a bathroom remodel at their home in Needham in late June, according to NBC 10 News Boston.
Shortly after the work was completed, the couple realized their white cat, Fluffy, had disappeared.
They checked all of his usual hiding places but found no sign of him. Believing he may have slipped out through the front door, Melissa and Ed searched the neighborhood and waited for him to return.
When Fluffy still had not appeared after 24 hours, the worried couple began making and posting missing cat flyers around the area.
“I never thought I was going to see him again,” Melissa said.
Desperate for help, she even contacted a pet retrieval specialist to search the neighborhood and nearby areas.
But Fluffy was much closer than anyone realized.
Melissa said she was upstairs crying when she suddenly heard a faint meow.
“I thought at that point I was hallucinating,” she recalled.
She followed the sound to the newly installed bathtub and spotted a tiny paw sticking out of an opening beneath it.
Video shared by the family showed Fluffy peeking through a neatly cut rectangular hole near a pipe under the tub.
Ed immediately called an emergency plumber.
“Yes, this is an emergency,” he reportedly told the operator. “It’s not a leak. Our cat is trapped under our tub.”
Fortunately, Fluffy did not need to wait for the plumber to arrive.
Once his owners found him, the determined cat managed to pull himself through the opening using his two front paws.
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Despite spending more than 30 hours trapped beneath the bathtub, Fluffy was unharmed and did not suffer any injuries.
The Kirbys have since bought an AirTag for their adventurous pet in hopes of avoiding another frantic search.
“If he ever gets out again or gets trapped under another appliance, we’ll be able to locate him,” Melissa said.