On a sweltering day, an unusual call came into Central Iowa Towing and Recovery: A tiny kitten was trapped inside the grille of a car that was in line at a drive-through, and the cat seemed to be suffering.
“I’ve never gotten a call like that in my life,” said Jordan McKnight, 38, an employee at the tow company in Ames.
McKnight and his co-worker Cole Denning rushed to Scooter’s Coffee on July 27 and found people crowded around a car. A woman was in the drive-through line, they said, and after placing her coffee order, said she heard an animal crying from inside her car. She looked around and realized a tiny cat somehow was stuck behind the front grille of her Honda.
“You could hear the cat crying out,” said Kathy Pike, an animal services officer with Ames Animal Shelter, who arrived at the scene after a Scooter’s employee called and reported the situation. “We didn’t know how to get it out. I tried to crawl under and figure out where this little thing got into the small spot.”
A group of people waiting at the drive-through gathered around the car, trying to figure out how to free the cat. The driver of the car, who did not reply to an interview request from The Washington Post, told Pike the cat was not hers, and she did not know how the animal could have gotten into the body of her car.
The crowd of customers was understanding about the holdup at the drive-through, Pike said, and coffee shop staff said freeing the cat was their priority.
“Everybody was like, ‘We’re going to do what we can for this animal, and we’re all going to work together and get it done,’” Pike said.
But they were running out of time to save the cat, who was panting and holding out her bright-red tongue.
“I was almost certain it was not going to make it,” Pike said, noting the 96-degree temperature that day that felt like 118 degrees with the humidity.
Pike was able to get only a few fingers through the grille before deciding she needed help. She called Central Iowa Towing and Recovery, figuring the front of the car would need to be taken apart.
“We rushed over,” Denning said.
Denning and McKnight raised the front of the car off the ground to get a better look underneath.
“We both came to the conclusion that the only possible way to get her out was to disassemble the whole front clip of the car,” McKnight said.
They worked quickly, removing panels around the hood and headlights, until there was enough of an opening for Denning to reach in and scoop the cat out. It took about 15 minutes to free the kitten.
Pike drenched the cat in water to cool her down and brought her directly to the vet.
“I wanted to get her as quickly as possible to the medical experts,” she said.
The kitten, believed to be about 2 months old, is a domestic shorthair. She had a fever and a blister on one paw but was otherwise well after the rescue. She weighs just under two pounds.
Pike named her “Fika,” a Swedish word that describes a coffee break. She thought it was a fitting name.
“We all took a break from our lives to help this animal in need, and it was related to coffee,” she said.
Fika is being cared for at the Ames Animal Shelter and has become a favorite among staff.
“She’s super affectionate, and she’s just a sweetheart,” Pike said. “She is just a love bug.”
Several adoption applications have come in, including from the manager of the coffee shop and even McKnight.
“I’m a cat lover,” he said, adding that his wife and daughter are also eager to adopt the kitten.
Pike said the shelter is going through the applications and that Fika will head to her new home within about a week, once she has all her necessary vaccines, and is spayed and dewormed.
“She is very lucky,” she said. “She seems very thankful for her outcome.”
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