12/06/2025
Three-Legged Cat Hiding in Storm Drain needed help.
When Caitlyn Clarke spotted a stray cat in her backyard, the cat ran away quickly, so Clarke assumed she’d never see him again.
But shortly after, she hearing meowing coming from the storm drain outside their house. When they went to investigate, they saw a cat staring back at them from inside the drain.
It was clear the cat wasn’t stuck in the drain — he was just hiding. Clarke, heartbroken by how terrified the cat was, tried for several days to coax him out.
“At night, I would sit out here in … the middle of the cul-de-sac for like, two hours.” As Clarke was trying to get the cat to feel comfortable around her, she noticed something unusual about him: He only had three legs.
“I didn’t even know he had three legs for a few days because he hadn’t walked past me, he’d been in the drain,” Clarke said. “And so the first time he came out, I was like, 'Oh my God, he has three legs."
Finally, in the midst of a monsoon rainstorm, the cat showed up at Clarke’s door soaking wet. Clarke’s mom ushered the kitty inside, and they got him set up with food, water and a comfy bed.
Clarke had been posting about the cat on Nextdoor and Facebook, and no one had come to claim him, so she was surprised to find that he had a microchip attached to an active phone number. She got in touch with his former owner, who shared a shocking story.
Clarke learned that the cat, named Bambino, had been rescued as a kitten by a man named David, who’d taken him to the vet to get his infected leg amputated — 14 years ago.
“We thought this cat was, like, 5,” Clarke said. “We had no idea he was 14.”
After caring for Bambino for seven years, David had given him to a neighbor. But the neighbors had lost or abandoned Bambino,.
David said he was more than happy for Clarke to adopt Bambino, and insisted on paying for some of his medical bills and food.
For Clarke, the decision to permanently adopt Bambino was a no-brainer. Over the past few weeks, he’s been settling into his new routine in Clarke’s home, which consists mostly of sleeping — and cuddling, of course.
“In the evenings and early mornings … he’s up on my bed and he wants snuggles and pets, and he does the very classic cat headbutting and pawing at me,” Clarke said.
Clarke never expected to find a three-legged 14-year-old stray cat living in a storm drain outside her house, and she never could have predicted that the cat she’d found would become such an important part of her life. But she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I’ve been saying for years now that I want a cat of my own,” Clarke said. “So I’m glad that I just had a random cat show up, because I didn’t get to think about if it was the right time or not. I have a cat now.”
by Alana Francis-Crow for the Dodo
