She Went Through the Drive-Through and Came Home With the Tow~Truck Driver

🐾 A Word From Mr. Mutt Ruff

“Boy, have I got a story ta share with ya!

A little friend of mine over in Ames was lookin’ fur a way home, and let me tell ya, she sure took the scenic route.

I’ve heard of workin’ hard ta get adopted, but good gravy ~ all I ever had ta do was look cute.

Pull up a chair. This one’s worth a tail wag.”

~ Mr. Mutt Ruff 🐾
Your Critter Corner Correspondent

Illustrative image ~ not the actual kitten pictured in this story.

AMES, IOWA ~ Most people pull into a coffee~shop drive-through hoping to leave with a cup of coffee.

One tiny Iowa traveler apparently had bigger plans.

She arrived hidden inside a car.

She left with the tow-truck driver.

Oh ~ and she weighed less than two pounds.

It happened July 27 at a Scooter’s Coffee in Ames, when a woman waiting in the drive~through heard something crying from somewhere inside her Honda.

There was just one problem.

It wasn’t coming from inside the passenger compartment.

A tiny stray kitten had somehow wedged herself behind the car’s front grille. The driver told rescuers the kitten wasn’t hers and she had no idea how the little stowaway had gotten there.

This was no ordinary cat nap

A Scooter’s employee called for help, and Ames Animal Services Officer Kathy Pike arrived.

By then, the situation was serious.

The temperature that day reached about 96 degrees, and with the humidity it reportedly felt like 118 degrees. The kitten was panting heavily, her tongue was bright red, and Pike feared she might not survive if they couldn’t get her out quickly.

Pike tried reaching the kitten from underneath the vehicle.

No luck.

She could barely get a few fingers through the grille.

Apparently this particular rescue was going to require something beyond the usual “Here, kitty, kitty.”

It was time to call a tow truck.

Gentlemen, we’re going to need to take apart the Honda

Jordan McKnight and Cole Denning of Central Iowa Towing and Recovery hurried to the coffee shop.

After lifting the front of the vehicle and getting a better look underneath, the two came to a rather unusual conclusion:

Part of the front of the car was going to have to come apart.

So there, in a coffee~shop drive~through, that’s exactly what they did.

Panels around the hood and headlights were carefully removed until they created an opening large enough to reach the kitten.

About 15 minutes later, Denning was able to reach inside and pull her free.

And while all of this was happening?

The other customers reportedly waited.

Instead of getting angry about the delay, people gathered around and tried to help. Coffee~shop employees made it clear that getting the kitten out safely was the priority.

For a few minutes, a line of strangers who had stopped for coffee became a kitten~rescue crew.

One very small patient

Once she was free, Pike cooled the overheated kitten with water and rushed her for veterinary care.

The little domestic shorthair was believed to be about two months old. She had a fever and a blister on one paw, but considering where she’d just been riding, she had escaped remarkably serious injury.

Then she needed a name.

Pike chose Fika.

It’s a Swedish term associated with taking time for a coffee break, rather appropriate for a kitten whose rescue caused an entire coffee-shop drive-through to take one together.

But the story wasn’t finished.

The tow~truck driver had one more pickup to make~

Applications came in to adopt the little survivor.

One of them belonged to Jordan McKnight ~ one of the tow~company employees who had helped rescue her.

McKnight told reporters that he was a cat lover and that his wife and daughter wanted the kitten, too.

And Fika eventually went home with him.

A later report shows that her story received one final tow-truck twist.

Her new family renamed her Dolly ~ a nod to the dollies used with tow trucks.

So a tiny stray kitten somehow climbed into a car, survived a dangerously hot ride, brought a coffee~shop drive~through to a standstill, required two tow operators to partially dismantle a Honda, went to the animal shelter as Fika…

…and ultimately went home as Dolly with one of the men who helped save her.

Sometimes finding your way home takes a rather unusual route.

And sometimes, apparently, it requires roadside assistance.

Deliverance Hope