Pet trapped
in dresser proves
to be a lucky cat

Maryanne Fife and her family never thought they would see their 3-year-old cat Cane again.

When the movers were at the Fifes' Iroquois Point home Dec. 15, Cane was nowhere to be found. The Fifes thought Cane might have run out of the house. He is an indoor cat, but the movers had left all the doors of the Albatross Avenue home open.

Cane likes to hide in Maryanne's dresser and had figured out how to open its drawers. But the movers had already taped all the drawers shut. When Maryanne asked one of the movers if the cat was in there, he said no.

"We took his word for it," she said.

Maryanne's 8-year-old daughter, Kerianne, walked around it a few times, banging on the sides, with no sound from Cane.

The Fifes stayed in the Iroquois Point home five more days and waited on the lanai every night for Cane to return. The day before they moved into a hotel, Maryanne and her 18-year-old daughter drove around the neighborhood looking for Cane.

"She was crying, calling out his name," Maryanne said.

Maryanne gave the neighbors and maintenance workers her number and asked them to call if they saw Cane. The family left Hawaii on Dec. 26 without him.

The Fifes settled in Crofton, Ky., and their household items arrived Jan. 27. Just in case Cane had been packed with the furniture, Larry Fife sent his wife and daughter away from the house before the movers arrived.

When the movers unloaded the dresser, there was a foul odor. Larry thought his worst fear was about to be realized. But when he opened the dresser, Cane was in one of the drawers staring back at him, meowing.

He called Maryanne with the news.

"He said, 'You're not going to believe this. The cat is alive.'"

Maryanne was driving around with Kerianne.

"I told Kerianne. She was jumping up and down. She was crying, I was crying. I was hyperventilating," she said.

Cane weighed 13.5 pounds in Hawaii. When he arrived in Crofton after 44 days inside the dresser, he weighed less than 3 pounds.

When Maryanne and her daughter returned home, Cane was inside drinking water. He was dehydrated and thirsty but could not eat anything.

The Fifes took Cane to an animal clinic, where a vet gave him fluids intravenously. Cane stayed hooked up to the IV overnight and went home the following afternoon.

Despite going a month and a half with no food or water, Cane suffered no permanent damage to his internal organs.

"He has no kidney or liver damage. That's the miracle," Maryanne said.

He is slowly regaining his weight, which is now up to 11.5 pounds. And he does not appear to have suffered any emotional injury.

"He's back to his old ways. He's even more sweeter," Maryanne said.

One thing Cane will not be doing anymore is hiding in Maryanne's dresser. The dresser is in storage, and Maryanne does not plan to use it.