Cat OK After Traveling 70 Miles Under SUV By Associated Press
document.write(getElapsed("20060103T230718Z")); Tue Jan 3, 6:07 PMUPDATED 14 HOURS 47 MINUTES AGO
VOORHEES, N.J. - Curiosity didn't kill one cat on a wild ride on the New Jersey Turnpike. The kitten, now known, for obvious reasons, as Miracle, hitchhiked a ride on the underbelly of a sport utility vehicle just before Christmas.
The gray and white feline traveled some 70 miles under the vehicle as it whizzed along the Turnpike on Dec. 23.
"I'm just amazed that the cat didn't fall off or get blown off," Karen Dixon-Aquino, director of the Animal Welfare Association in Voorhees, told the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill for Tuesday's newspapers.
The association is caring for the furry hitchhiker and plans to put him up for adoption.
The SUV's driver was traveling from Newark to Cherry Hill and didn't know she was giving the kitten a ride until another motorist saw the tabby through a wheel well and flagged the driver over near Interchange 4 in Mount Laurel.
Dixon-Aquino said the cat probably climbed into the guts of the SUV in Newark and was asleep when the journey began. Somehow, the cat avoided being mangled by fan blades and other moving parts as he clung to the car for the ride.
The kitty, estimated to be about 8 or 9 months old, was not unscathed, though.
"He was pretty freaked out," Dixon-Aquino said. "His paws were burnt, one claw was missing and his fur was singed."
