After three months of surviving out of a storm drain, this sick cat who was abandoned by his previous family finally had someone notice him, see that he's in need of help, and save him right before a major storm

Mariel Ruvinsky • Writer and Editor

Jul 2, 2026 2:15 PM EDT

How hard would you work to gain an abandoned cat's trust?

If you're reading this right now, on ICHC, then you're probably someone who loves cats so, so much. Everyone here is a cat person. We see so often stories about cats being abandoned, wondering what kind of people would abandon innocent creatures like that, and we ask- we beg, the people reading our coverage of these stories to be the kind of people who would do something about it if they saw an abandoned cat outside.

We believe that the people who are here right now, reading these stories, are exactly the kind of people who would do something to help a cat in need. In fact, we don't just believe it. We know it. Countless times, our audience members have shared their cat rescue stories with us. You guys have rescued cats from the streets, from long stays in shelters, from car engines, dumpsters and everything in between. We were going to ask what you would have done had you come across the kitten in this story – knowing it was abandoned by its previous family, finding it barely surviving in a storm drain. But we don't need to ask. We know what you would do.

We wouldn't even be surprised if the person who rescued Gio and wrote about it on r/CatDistributionSystem is one of our ICHC readers. The patience they showed, coming back to this cat over and over, gently getting the cat to trust them, allowing the cat to choose them and only then taking them home – that is how a real cat person acts, and it is exactly how we wish everyone in the world could act toward cats in need. More people like this, more stories like this, and the whole world would look a little brighter.

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"i found this man in a storm drain"

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We cannot imagine how scared he must have been. Our heart breaks for every abandoned cat out there, and we can only wish and pray that every one of them will be found by someone like this.
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You made the right choice in kidnapping him. We can't think of many worse places to be during a storm than in a storm drain. He would have been taken completely off guard, and chances are that he wouldn't have made it at all. You didn't just adopt him. You saved his life.
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After three months of surviving out of a storm drain, this sick cat who was abandoned by his previous family finally had someone notice him, see that he's in need of help, and save him right before a major storm

How hard would you work to gain an abandoned cat's trust?

"i found this man in a storm drain"

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