These days, the hustle and bustle of life leads to all sorts of distractions. We’re so busy, forgetting to eat, that diets are filled with drive thru fast foods. We try to relax and space out online as the hours slip by…watching cat videos *cough cough*? Multiple trips back and forth to the stores for items we forgot is a pretty common occurrence. So when a couple in rural SW Missouri needed to run into town for something they forgot, it was no big deal. Except for the extremely humid June temperatures that were reaching into the 90’s that no one enjoys. They grabbed their items and headed home with no problems.
Until they stopped at a local drive thru for a quick lunch.
But it was just before noon so wisely, the husband gave the ultimatum I personally use often. He said ‘we will drive by and if the drive thru isn’t busy we will stop’. Since the restaurant they were planning on stopping at was McDonald’s, there was a good chance they’d be headed home with empty stomachs.
However, there were only 2 other cars in front of them so they joined the procession. And it wasn’t long before the man yelled ‘Oh my God’ and jumped out of the truck, startling his wife.
He started running around the truck, and I knew what was going on. I got out and he said ‘there’s a baby kitten under the truck’, she told Cole and Marmalade.
The kitten was equally as startled and had run under the car that was in front of them.
When his wife looked under the car, there sat a tiny 2 pound, tabby kitten. The poor creature was sitting stunned, drooling and panting with its mouth open. To this day, she states that simply thinking about that first look at the sad, pathetic soul makes her tear up.
The husband quickly tapped on the drivers window to let her know that there was a kitten under her car. He also let the McDonald’s employee know what was transpiring in their drive thru. But there was no way of knowing just where the feline had come from.
She exclaimed ‘what? We don’t even have cats’!
No matter who’s cat this was, the loving couple was not going to leave it to suffer knowing it was there. The wife began crawling on the ground attempting to catch the kitten. But the car was too low to the ground for her to get a good angle. At one point, the kitten had crawled up into the wheel well and she even got her arm stuck temporarily! That’s dedication. The bruises prove it.
Fortunately the kitten moved the the middle of the car, where the driver was able to inch forward, uncovering the baby.
But this swift drive thru kitten was faster than most employees I’ve dealt with, and he escaped their clutches.
He ran back under our truck and then the truck behind us. My husband moved our truck up, and the passenger of the truck behind us got out to help. We ran around the truck a couple of times and then he jumped up on the trucks frame.
We suspect that Mickey was underneath someone’s vehicle, and they didn’t realize it and drove off. He was to scared and couldn’t get off, and they happened to stop at the McDonald’s drive thru. We think he probably jumped off then, but then they left. The pavement was so hot and he was moving from car to car to stay out of the hot sun. It fortunate that we found him when we did because I think he was close to having a heat stroke. He also could have easily been run over. We held up the McDonald’s drive thru at lunch hour for about 10-15 minutes. Surprisingly, no one said anything about having to wait!
After they got home, they realized that they didn’t even need what they had gone to town for!
It took about 24 hours before he finally trusted us and actually came to us. He is such a sweetheart, and we love him dearly.All his other kitty siblings are rescues as well. We rescued another male tabby, Lucky, 2 years earlier from the middle of the highway.
My husband drove over something in the road. He happened to look in the rear view mirror, and saw the head move. He stopped the truck jumped out and brought back a little kitten. The poor thing wasn’t able to move his front legs very well. We took him to the emergency vet, he was about 5 weeks old, and he was diagnosed with front limb paresis and an URI. Thankfully he recovered the use of his front legs with the exception 1 front paw. One vet had recommended amputation, but we got a second opinion. She said as long as it wasn’t bothering him, we could leave it. He now uses that leg like a peg leg.
We have been in the right place in the right time on 4 different occasions! We are so blessed to have been able to rescue each of our fur babies.