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It was just before sunrise near Madison Lake in southern Minnesota. The sound of coyotes echoed from far away, but Erik Koffski couldn’t escape the sound of meowing.

“We could hear a cat yelling, kind of far off, like it was on a back porch and didn’t get let in the night before and it was hungry now,” Koffski said.

He was getting ready to start a fishing tournament on the lake east of Mankato.

“We were kind of making jokes because it was nonstop, it made those noises for like a half an hour,” he said. “It slowly worked its way around the bay we were in, started at one end and it worked its way almost to the landing where we were at and then it stopped.”

Koffski assumed the cat found its way inside a nearby home. The sun started to rise and the water was still. Koffski looked back to the shore and through the dead vegetation, a light orange kitten emerged — swimming.

The tiny, wet mound of fur was swimming toward Koffski. He got off his paddleboard and scooped him up out of the weeds and cleaned him off.

“We started the tournament and I told him ‘OK, you can hang out here, but I’m gonna go fishing.’ So he hung out on my paddleboard as I fished. He sat on my seat, my shoulder and helped me catch fish,” Koffski said.

All morning, the kitten sat as Koffski tentatively watched him. Koffski said it was a weird day because he’s not a cat person and was not expecting to have a kitten glued to his side all day. Once Koffski went back to shore to head off to a different lake, he thought the kitten would scamper away. 

The kitten didn’t do that. Instead, it followed him back to his trailer and Koffski asked if he wanted to get in his jeep and head off to the next lake. The kitten agreed and jumped inside the vehicle.

The two spent the rest of the day fishing; the kitten slept on the back of the paddleboard in a sunny spot. Later, the 41-year-old Koffski brought him home.

The cat charmed Koffski’s wife and son. Then the family picked what seems like the perfect name: Fisher.

As far as future endeavors, Koffski isn’t sure. Next season Fisher will be too big for a paddleboard, and his water adventure could have been a one-time thing. Fisher was very thin, Koffski said it was clear the cat hadn’t eaten or been taken care of for a long time. A veterinarian confirmed Fisher was a stray, likely about 12 weeks old. 

As a new cat person, Koffski said he was unaware of the “cat distribution system,” that is, the unexpected ways cats sometimes choose owners. It could be a stray in a garbage can, a paw banging at your window or in Koffski’s case, a kitten who just wanted to soak up the sun on a fishing excursion.

“I am more of a dog person,” he said. “We weren’t looking for a cat, but he definitely gets along with me. He is the first cat that has really liked me.”

Sam Stroozas

Author

Erik Koffski made an unlikely friend while fishing when a light orange kitten emerged from dead vegetation and swam to his paddleboard.

After swimming to a Minnesota angler, stray kitten now has a new fur-ever home

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