Kitten Stuck Under Car From NJ Rescued On Georgia Campus

A kitten that traveled nearly 800 miles from New Jersey to Georgia wedged in the undercarriage of a car and was rescued on the University of Georgia campus (UGA).

Jadyn Sawyer, a third-year ecology major at UGA, drove from Mount Laurel back to her campus, where she parked and left her car for about five minutes. When she returned, she found a small leg sticking out from a hole under the vehicle, according to a Facebook post from Kelly Bettinger, founder of Cat Zip Alliance – Campus Cats. Sawyer believes the kitten got into her car in New Jersey and that she did not see or hear him during the drive, Bettinger wrote.

Sawyer called UGA police, who called Bettinger's group. Officers could not reach the kitten through the engine. With Sawyer's permission, they tried to remove the lining under the car, but there was no opening large enough to get to him, Bettinger wrote on Facebook. The kitten was limp but responsive.

Sawyer and Bettinger drove the car to Tires Plus on College Station Road. Mechanics put it on a lift and kept removing parts of the undercarriage "until I could reach in and pull this little boy out," Bettinger wrote.

The shop did not charge for the work, even though Bettinger offered to pay.

After he was given water and cooled off, the kitten was no longer panting, Bettinger wrote. A veterinarian at Animal Wellness Center found no apparent problems beyond a mild kitten cold. He weighed 2.5 pounds, putting him at about 10 weeks old. Bettinger wrote that he "purred up a storm" in the arms of the veterinarian, Dr. Dodd.

"This kitten has had quite the adventure," Bettinger wrote.

Rescuers named him Jersey. As of Aug. 10, the group had six kittens to find homes for, with all veterinary care covered by Cat Zip Alliance – Campus Cats.

In a Sept. 6 Facebook post, Bettinger described Jersey, by then 3½ months old, as "super sweet, gentle, playful, cuddly." The kitten "gives the cutest little silent meows when you talk to him," she wrote.

The group said he needed a home with other cats. "He tried so hard to make friends with a cat figurine," Bettinger wrote of a visit to her mother's home, where her mother's real cat ignored him.

Jersey has since been adopted by an Athens, GA-area family, NJ.com reported.

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