On Sunday, May 19, a beloved pet cat named Sisu went missing. Thanks to an incredible effort by the Carellton Community in Gallatin, he was found three days later unharmed.

Sisu, a cherished member of the Curtis family, was adopted from The Humane Society of Sumner County in December 2022 as a Christmas present after their oldest child, Cruz, had been asking for a pet. 

Santa left a letter on Christmas morning telling Cruz and his little sister Navy to pick out their new pet from their local animal shelter. When they first met Sisu, it was a purrfect match.

“He was definitely part of the family immediately,” said Gracie Curtis, the children's mother. “He is such a cuddler, so sweet, the most angel cat.”

Sisu meant the world to the Curtis family, so when a neighbor texted Gracie around 8:15 one evening saying she saw their indoor cat outside, the family became alarmed.

“We were out to dinner, and I didn’t read the text right away,” Gracie explained. “By the time I responded, the neighbor said Sisu was two houses down, trapped in a yard with a German Shepherd.”

As the Curtises made their way home, two of their neighbors attempted to get Sisu but were unsuccessful and did not see which way the cat took off.

“From there, the search party began. I stayed out from 9 pm to 2 am looking for him. I also posted on three different Carrellton Facebook pages, and the next morning the entire neighborhood began helping us look for him,” Gracie recalled.

For the next two days, neighbors on bikes, golf carts, and on foot searched for Sisu. “Basically, everyone turned the neighborhood upside down. People offered their golf carts to us because they saw we were walking so much, and others left out food to try and attract the cat,” said Gracie.

On Wednesday, May 23, Gracie decided to go back out and look for Sisu around 4 am before getting the kids ready for their last day of school. “At close to 5 am, I knew that the neighborhood was about to come alive, and during the day the cats hide. Dusk, nighttime, or dawn is the best time to find a cat,” she said.

While checking one last location a neighbor had suggested, she saw what she thought was her cat scurry by. “It didn’t quite look like him because he was dirty. I yelled his name, and he stopped dead in the street. I knew it was him,” Gracie recalled.

Sisu then dove into a storm drain, and Gracie followed him. “I was laying on the ground in the street, trying to coax him out,” she said.

After several minutes, he finally showed his face, and she called her husband Trevor to meet her there with wet food. “When he stuck his face out, and I knew it was him, I started ugly crying,” Gracie remembered.

Finally, around 5:15 am, Gracie was able to coax Sisu close enough to grab him and remove him from the drain. They took him home immediately and put him on Cruz’s bed to wake him up.

“Cruz said he thought he was dreaming,” Gracie recalled. Navy was excited to see Sisu’s return as well.

Later that day, they took Sisu to the vet, and he was just fine. Besides sleeping a lot the first day, his demeanor remains unchanged except for the fact that he is now terribly afraid of the back door where he originally escaped from.

Grateful for their community’s help, Gracie posted again on Facebook to notify their neighbors that Sisu had been brought home. One neighbor brought over a gift basket full of kitty treats for Sisu. Others commented on the post, saying they were crying happy tears.

“The neighborhood was incredible. He was the people’s cat,” Gracie reflected. “Seeing everyone take their time to not only pray for him, but to physically help us look for our cat for two days, day and night, was incredibly heartwarming. It was acting out being a neighbor and community in the best way, and we feel very fortunate to live here!”

The Curtis family is overjoyed to have Sisu home and to get their cuddles in now. What could have been a heartbreaking story turned into a sweet memory of how many rallied together to find their beloved Sisu.