Reunited, and it purrs so good:
Mike the Cat was accidentally hauled away with some old furniture. Afterward, when his owner, Neal Augenstein, noticed that Mike was missing, he began a search that included contacting the furniture movers:
“They said our couches were still in the warehouse, so I rushed over there,” Augenstein said. “Two of the three couches were there, but the ripped one had stayed on the truck and been sent to the I-66 Transfer Station, which is where recycling is done before trash is eventually sent to the landfill.”
The WTOP reporter continued his investigation at the transfer station, where workers said someone saw a cat Monday and that animal control came to collect it.
“You can imagine my heart skipped a beat,” Augenstein said.
But the Fairfax Animal Shelter, two minutes down the road from the transfer station, told Augenstein the cat had been moved to a shelter in Lorton.
At the second shelter, “a very nice employee” gave Augenstein some details from the cat’s intake report.
“Someone at the transfer station saw the cat fall when the stuff was being dumped at the landfill and called animal services,” Augenstein recounted. “An officer found Mike in an abandoned part of the building, hiding in a trash pile. He was hissing, obviously very scared.”
Mike the Cat, who has a microchip, was then reunited with a relieved Augenstein.
“This morning, when I woke up, Mike was lying across my chest while I was sleeping, and now, as I’m working, he’s lying by the keyboard, yelling, getting belly rubs and doing happy drools,” he said.
See Jessica Kronzer, His cat was mistakenly tossed with an old couch, so this WTOP reporter tracked him down, WTOP, August 27, 2026.