“I couldn’t believe it …”
Published on Nov 21, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Late last month, the unthinkable happened to Omaha resident Jan Robinson. Her beloved 3-year-old indoor cat, Ellie, had mysteriously gone missing.
Around that time, Robinson was having her bathroom remodeled, and she feared that one of the workers might have accidentally allowed Ellie to sneak outside. Robinson appealed to the public for help tracking her down, but to no avail.
Three weeks after Ellie went missing, however, Robinson heard the faint sound of meowing — coming from inside her newly tiled bathroom wall.
It seems that Ellie had hidden inside the wall when it was open, remaining there unseen as it was closed up weeks earlier — yet incredibly, she was still alive. Robinson reached out to a humane society, which suggested she contact a specialist for help.
That’s when Garrett Kohn of American Rooter Plumbing got involved.
“He cut into the wall and, using his camera scope, was able to see Ellie,” Cheryl, spokesperson for the plumbing company, told The Dodo. “He saw her glowing eyes on the camera. Then he cut her out of the wall.”
Ellie was understandably frightened and weak, but she’d somehow managed to survive for three weeks within the wall without any clear source of food or water.
“[Robinson] promptly took her to the vet,” Cheryl said. “And the only thing she had was a UTI. She didn’t even look emaciated. They told her there was nothing we can see wrong with her, and that she’s going to be fine.”
The missing cat’s survival for so long in the wall seemed something of a miracle.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Cheryl said.
Now, Ellie and Robinson are picking up right back where they left off — and staff at American Rooter Plumbing couldn’t be happier with how it all turned out.
“Everybody is doing well,” Cheryl said. “Ellie has her meds for her UTI and that’s it. She’s back to cuddling with Jan, and life is going on as usual. It’s just so good. We’re a small, family-run operation here, so it feels just so nice to be able to help out.”
