Kitten Gets Trapped Under Woman’s Car, No One Prepared To Give Up Hope

A group of New York residents teamed up to save a kitten from a car engine, and they certainly didn’t give in easily, as they devoted 12 hours to the rescue.

Journalist Maria Yagoda set off to walk her dog in the morning to find several handwritten notes on her car window. They explained that there was a kitten hiding under her car and provided her with a phone number to call.

After calling the number, Yagoda was informed that her neighbors heard a cat screaming at around 2 a.m., and the noise came from under her vehicle. Of course, Yagoda wanted to help, so she joined forces with the other women to try and save the kitten.

“Someone got in touch with the rescue Greenpoint Cats, and Becky [Wisdom] came down with all the tools to help,” Yagoda told Newsweek. “She worked tirelessly to get this kitty rescued, and so did the other women.”

Indeed, when Wisdom, the communications consultant and president of Greenpoint Cats, heard about the cat under the car, her initial thought was “not again.” Just a week before, she had rescued another cat from a similar situation, and now she had to do it all over again.

When she arrived, Wisdom, of Brooklyn, New York, listened for the kitten’s meows to determine where he was and his responsiveness. It became clear that this wasn’t going to be a quick rescue, so she enlisted the help of a nearby construction worker to jack the car up and see if they could get under the car instead.

Thinking ahead, Wisdom also brought a shelter cat named Lydia with her, telling Newsweek that she acted as “potential bait to lure out the kitten.”

However, Lydia wasn’t too keen on working that day and didn’t meow as hoped.

Wisdom said: “The kitten darted under a different car, so we went to plan B—blocking all sides of the car with cardboard (and anything else we could find) and setting humane kitten traps that I could monitor with a cellular-enabled trail camera.”

Several hours passed and there was still no movement, so Wisdom was convinced the cat was stuck. As a result, she called another rescuer named Martha to come help. The duo continued trying to lure the kitten out by playing cat sounds, including a mama meowing for her kittens.

Eventually, they could see the kitten in the car’s undercarriage. By removing a piece of metal, they could finally get their hand in to pull the kitten out and bring him to safety.

In total, it took around 12 hours of patience and determination, but the cat is now doing well. He’s believed to be around 8 weeks old, and he’s even been named Pothole.

“He was covered in car grease and grit, so I bathed him twice and gave him flea medication and dewormers. I took him to the vet the morning after his rescue, where he got an exam and vaccination. I also was sure to give him a lot of TLC to help him overcome his initial fear of people,” Wisdom continued.

The gray tabby is now staying in a foster home with Lydia and is available for adoption.

Yagoda shared footage of the rescue saga on her cats’ dedicated TikTok account (@chipandlouiebros), and the clip went viral with over 3.5 million views and more than 511,300 likes at the time of writing.

Internet users have praised the New York women for coming to Pothole’s rescue, leading to more than 2,100 comments on the TikTok video in a matter of days.

One comment reads: “omg this is what community is about.”

Another TikTok user wrote: “We’re so glad this little one is safe. What a rescue. Thank you (and everyone who helped!) for not giving up and showing so much compassion.”

While one person joked: “Lydia thought this was supposed to be a fun field trip, not a work trip.”

Having saved many cats over the years, Wisdom explained that they will often seek out warm or shaded hiding places. If they go underneath a car, they can get injured when it starts moving, so it’s important to be vigilant.

She recommends baking on the hood before driving, checking under the car, looking in the wheel wells, and honking the horn. Before starting the car, listen out for any meows too, because rescues like Greenpoint Cats have saved more than their fair share of kittens from situations like this.

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