Every year a kitten gets stuck in the undercarriage of a car, is carried a long distance under horrific conditions, but then all ends happily as the moggie survives and gets adopted. (We don’t hear about the cats that don’t make it.) Here, just in time for Christmas, is the annual hitching-cat story from KPTV Oregon. Be sure to watch the video , including the mewing kitten, here.
TUALATIN, Ore. — For once, curiosity didn’t kill the cat. A 3-month-old kitten rode beneath a SUV for more than 120 miles Wednesday. Marc Lichty left Olympia, Wash., in his SUV after finishing up a day of work. Along the way to Tualatin, he stopped at a rest stop and heard meowing. Lichty, however, couldn’t find any trace of a cat.When he returned home to Tualatin, he stepped out of the car and heard the meowing again, leading him to grab a flashlight. “Sure enough, the cat was up underneath in the spare tire spot up there,” Lichty said.”He shined the light and I just saw this little guy’s face there so we tried to get him out and coaxed him with a little piece of salmon,” said Jenna Lichty, Marc’s daughter. “I pulled him right out.”Sub-freezing temperatures reached the teens in the Pacific Northwest this week, which likely made for a chilly ride down Interstate 5 on Wednesday.”It was pretty cold. I can’t imagine traveling 75 miles down the freeway and it being 20 degrees out,” Lichty said.
Fig. 1. Tahoe? I prefer “Hitch,” after our favorite atheist.
The cat does not have a micro chip and was not wearing a collar. The Lichtys called Olympia businesses in the area where Lichty was working Wednesday, but they were unsuccessful in finding the owner. The family has decided to keep the kitten. Now, all they need is a good name.”Well, we’ve got a few floating around,” Lichty said. “Chevy. And there’s Tahoe, Pitch and Lucky. Nothing quite yet.”
Bonus video:
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Fig. 2. Imagine what it could do with thumbs!
Adorable!
Well, there’s also the adage of the cat’s number of lives. Or to go with the post, was it the number of litter-mates? :-/
That is cute too.
“It seems to be from Maggie, the affectionate short form of Margaret. In the eighteenth century, this was applied as a name for a cow or calf. In the nineteenth century it could refer to an untidily dressed woman or slattern. It was only in the twentieth century that it became a pet name for a cat.”
I predict that in the twentyoneth century it will come to name the local youtube movie star.
I had always understood that it was a slang term for a cat from the Liverpool ( England ) area. As the Liverpudlian population is very Irish in it’s make-up maybe it has Gaelic origins ?
Re. the video, I once had a girlfriend who had a Siamese named Bouaki that used to do that all the time.
Now that’s what you do when you find a cat! Good on them for making every effort to find the family.
I would name the cat ‘peregrine’. It means ‘Roving or wandering; migratory’. (call names ‘Perry’ or ‘Grin’) The kitty is even colored like the falcon – gray on top and white underneath. It is a handsome creature.
Nevermind the crocoduck, here is owlcat
http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/funny-pictures-cat-looks-like-an-owl.jpg
My cat Max (who’s marked much like this kitten) can open every door in my apartment as long as it swings away from him. Admittedly, all the handles are lever shaped rather than knobs.