my sister's cat

I remember one night when I was in high school, my sister called me around 10pm. She and her friend lived in an apartment about a mile away from our parent's house where I was living. My sister was frantic. Her cat had gotten outside and when they finally caught him he had a twiglike something about an inch long having out one of his nostrils. I told her that I'd be down there right away. I woke our mom up and had her drive me over to their apartment. When I got there,  my sister was in tears and the cat was just sitting there like nothing happened. It freaked me out when I saw the twiglike something in his nostril but I knew if I panicked, then my sister would too. So I grabbed the cat and tried to examine him,  looking for blood or any other visible signs of trauma. The cat just purred and kept trying to curl up in my lap. Obviously he wasn't worried about the thing in his nose. My sister wanted me to pull it out but I had reservations about that. What if it's longer than it looks? What if it has a crook in it and tears his nose up? Going to the vet wasn't an option because our vet is a country vet who lives 30 miles away. With it being late at night and my sister's budget couldn't afford the vet,  we opted to do what we could. Right when I decided that the thing to do was to slowly pull  the object out from his nose,  the cat sneezed. The twiglike something was gone! We looked and looked for it all over the floor and never found it. Meanwhile,  the cat just went to sleep as if nothing happened.
My sister was relieved and so was I.