Published July 17, 2026 03:53PM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
On June 2, a house cat named Fridge snuck out of her owners\u2019 tent at a campground near Colorado\u2019s Great Sand Dunes National Park and vanished into the desert.<\/p>\n
The three-year-old cat ended up surviving 39 days alone in the backcountry, enduring high temperatures, and lack of food and water, and the presence of predators. Fridge\u2019s survival \u00a0astonished her owners and raised questions about how an indoor cat managed to stay alive for nearly six weeks in Colorado\u2019s backcountry<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no way that this tiny little cat survived this long with no food, no water,\u201d her owner, Na-Kee Bullen,\u00a0told Outside<\/em>. \u201cWe had kind of given up hope at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/section>\n Bullen, who lives in Minnesota, woke around 5:30 A.M. on June 2 to find the door of her tent cracked open and both of her cats gone. Louis, her nine-year-old cat, was right outside, but Fridge was nowhere to be seen. Bullen and her boyfriend, Jefferson Howard, spent the next eight hours searching the surrounding area. The couple drove up and down nearby roads calling Fridge\u2019s name and setting out treats. They tried to book another night at the campground to extend their search, but to no avail.<\/p>\n Then, the two made the hardest decision of the trip: they posted signs, called the local shelter, and got back on the road to Minnesota without Fridge.<\/p>\n \u201cNot even in my worst nightmare could I have guessed this could happen,\u201d Howard wrote on his Instagram<\/a>. \u201cIt was so awful and felt like a piece of me was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n On July 11, Bullen, who is a tattoo artist, was at work, about to start a tattoo, when Howard called in tears. \u201cGo outside, go outside. I need to tell you something,\u201d he told her. Her first thought was that someone had died. Instead he told her,\u00a0\u201cSomeone called. I think they found Fridge.\u201d<\/p>\n The shelter\u2019s photo confirmed it was Fridge. Bullen handed her appointment to another artist, grabbed her things, and drove 16 hours through the night to Colorado\u2019s San Luis Valley where the animal shelter is located. She was standing at the facility\u2019s doors when the staff unlocked them the next morning.<\/p>\n Fridge was frail, she said. The cat typically weighs eight to nine pounds and came back under six. When Bullen took her to a vet, they found her paws scarred, her nails worn short, and dried blood under her toes\u00a0that wasn\u2019t hers.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re like, she had to have been killing mice or maybe small rabbits,\u201d Bullen said.\u00a0\u201cI wish I had a little GoPro on her so I could see what she was doing, what kind of animals she ran into and how she survived.\u201d<\/p>\n Domesticated cats are adept at surviving outdoors. A 2023 study<\/a> on free-ranging cats found that they cat over 2,000 different species, from rodents, to birds, to small lizards and insects. A 2026 follow-up study<\/a> found that when cats do eat insects, beetles make up roughly 80 percent of the menu.<\/p>\n What crunchy bugs could Fridge have lived off of? According to the National Park Service,<\/a> Great Sand Dunes is home to over 1,000 known species of arthropods like insects and spiders, including at least five beetle species<\/a> found nowhere else on Earth.<\/p>\n Fridge also had to watch her back. The park also hosts\u00a0coyotes, mountain lions, black bears, bobcats, and golden eagles.<\/p>\n \u201cDriving into that campsite, we saw deer, coyotes, all different kinds of animals,\u201d Bullen told Outside. <\/em>\u201cI\u2019m like, how did you survive 40 days with all of these predators? The entire world is against you right now.\u201d<\/p>\n At the time of Fridge\u2019s disappearance, Bullen and Howard were driving from California back to Minnesota when they stopped at the Sand Dunes. Before the trip, Bullen worried Fridge would be the wanderer, and bought harnesses for both of her cats. Instead, Fridge would curl up on the camping chairs beside her owners, while Louis wanted to explore.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was definitely like \u2018I want to stay by my mom,\u2019\u201d said Bullen. \u201cSomething must have scared her for her to run away like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Whatever Fridge endured out there, she is still as affectionate as ever. The moment she was out of the carrier at the shelter, all she wanted was to curl up between her owners.<\/p>\n One thing, however, did change. \u201cShe was not as food-driven before, and she\u2019s very food-driven now,\u201d Bullen said.\u00a0\u201cShe\u2019ll jump up on the counter as you\u2019re cutting chicken and steal a chicken breast and take off with it.\u201d<\/p>\n As for camping with the cats again, Bullen isn\u2019t sure her heart can take it. But if she does, she has a plan: \u201cDefinitely AirTags. That was a big mistake, that I did not have them,\u201d she said, as well as making the cats sleep in their harnesses.<\/p>\n \u201cFridge is a fighter,\u201d Bullen said. \u201cShe really is.\u201d<\/p>\n Fridge isn\u2019t the only Colorado cat to have cheated death. On July 11\u2014the same day Bullen got her phone call\u2014a seven-year-old Denver cat named Bones squeezed out of a partially open truck window on Interstate 70 and jumped out of the vehicle while it was moving at highway speed.<\/p>\nFridge\u2019s Ordeal By the Numbers<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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A Frantic Drive Back to Colorado<\/h2>\n
Life After the Backcountry<\/h2>\n
Another Colorado Cat Cheats Death<\/h2>\n