Possum the cat pops her head out of vent in ceiling, woman uses hilarious tactic to get her out: 'I recorded her meowing and played it back'

Author image for Briana Viser
Briana Viser • Writer and Editor
Jun 10, 2026 12:45 PM EDT

Sometimes the universe drops a cat right on you, literally from above. 

It's true. There are times in life where something happens that we can't quite put our finger on, but we know it's meaningful. Take the story from Reddit's r/CatDistributionSystem for example. The woman lives in an area with a lot of stray cats, so we're starting there. The home she lives in wasn't taken care of so well before her, and there are some cracks places that need fixing. Due to these issues, it's actually quite easy for a cat to sneak itself inside. And that's exactly what happened. It all happened one night; she heard meowing one night around 3 in the morning and it sounded like it was coming from inside the house. She looked and looked but couldn't find anything. Then after looking for 15 minutes or so, she started hearing the meowing again. She took off the vent cover to her bedroom and then suddenly this little kitty pops its head out a few minutes later. 

She tried her hardest to tempt the kitten with food, but she wouldn't budge. Then she decided to get creative: she recorded the cat meowing and played it back to her, making her think there was another cat there and sparking her curiosity. She actually managed to grab her and the rest is history. Never doubt the cat distribution system! 

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    FO
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    Cheezburger Image 10636879872
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    Cheezburger Image 10636880896
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    This is Possum! I have had Possum for a little over two years
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    now, she was my first gift from the CDS! Very funny TLDR at the end
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    There is a very large community of stray and feral cats where I live, my neighbor was an older lady
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    (before she moved away) who fed them so most of the cats would hang out on her porch.
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    Unfortunately since she was older none of the cats were fixed, probably no way for her to
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    financially afford fixing them all as our local county animal services no longer offer free TNR.
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    The people who used to live in my place didn't take great care of it so there were random holes in
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  • It's actually pretty genius how this woman decided to catch this kitten. I never would have thought to record the cat meowing and play it back to her. I would probably have just kept trying with food, and if that didn't work I'd just leave the vent open and see over time. If the cat still didn't come out, I might even get a ladder or something and crawl up myself! I wouldn't be comfortable to just leave a kitten up in a ceiling vent. There's not a ton of air up there, and it would really worry me that the kitten was there alone with no mama cat and no family. 

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    the skirting covered by a bunch of bushes, perfect place for mama cat to hide her babies! The cats
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    were knocking down my heating vents and I'm going to assume mama cat left Possum in there
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    while she was off getting food. I heard meowing one random night at around 3 in the morning
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    that sounded like it was coming from inside my house. After looking around for like 15.
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    minutes thinking I was crazy she started meowing again, I take off the vent cover in my room and she pops her head out a few
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  • Another void cat! They're stereotypically not well liked always, but here at I Can Has Cheezburger they certainly are! Enjoy. 

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    minutes later. I feel so bad for how I caught her but at least it worked: I couldn't get her out with food so I recorded her
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    meowing and played it back while I was sitting by the vent. She poked her head out again and I snatched her Her eye was very
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    gunky at first but of course it's all fixed now! She hung out in my bathtub with a fluffy blanket and
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    a squeaky mouse for a few weeks until she got used to me.
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    TLDR: Possum was a gift from the vents, she is the imposter.
    via u/M-asochist

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