ummm.... Free Cat?

I grew up on a farm. There was a section of the hayloft that had not been cleaned out since about the 1950s. It was all full of crappy half-destroyed hay and straw bales and loose hay that had been pumped in at that time, and was a mess. Then, during the late 80s, we finally decided to clean it out. We found something that looked exactly like that cat. Except it wasn't blackened, it was more of a tan color. So, either that cat expired when blown hay smothered it, or it crawled onto a pile of blown hay to die, and then was covered up. Probably the latter.

Also found an old whiskey bottle certainly left by an old farmhand who was a confirmed alcoholic and heavy smoker, a rare veteran of both WWI and WWII.
/And that heavy drinking, heavy smoking farmhand died in the county nursing home at age 96.

They should have sent more cats in looking for it.