Eight lives left!
An adorable kitten made a harrowing 250-mile journey from Boston to New Jersey while trapped in the undercarriage of a BMW — and now she needs a fur-ever home, her rescuers said Friday.
The six-week-old kitty, who has since been aptly named Beemer, was rescued from the pricey electric vehicle after the car’s owner heard an odd sound coming from its wheel well at his South Orange home Monday.
“I plugged the car in to charge it and heard a ‘meow,” said Jeff Rothstein. “I was like, Oh my God, what just happened?”
Rothstein, who had just driven the gleaming 2025 ride back from Beantown with his wife, Lauri, said he had no clue there was a furry stowaway on board.
“I can’t imagine what that little cat was going through,” he said. “She’s one tough cat.”
“We would have jumped out if we had heard anything,” Lauri added.
The sweet-faced, black-and-white kitten, who had likely slipped into the vehicle’s body to stay warm, refused to come out despite hours of effort from firefighters,” said Whitney Malin, a local animal rescuer who helped the Rothsteins save the feline. “The cat was petrified.”
“I had tuna and bacon and was playing YouTube videos of kittens crying, which usually works,” Malin said.“It was three hours of me lying under the car and the fire department trying — and it didn’t work.”
The Rothsteins were good sports about letting firefighters “jack up” their luxury vehicle, Malin said.
“I can’t even believe [they] allowed the fire department to rip apart their $80,000 car,” she said.
Malin returned the next day — this time armed with “a ton of pre-cooked bacon” — to lure the feisty feline into a humane animal trap.
“I was able to get her into the trap and then in a carrier with a fuzzy blanket,” Malin said. “I fed her and she was all hissy — but turns out she is super sweet.”
The kitten, who has since gotten a clean bill of health, is still in South Orange and is now searching for a home.
She has a meeting with someone who potentially wants to adopt her Friday, Malin said.
It’s good luck that the kitty lived to tell the tail, er, tale, she said.
“She would have lived her life in a BMW dealership parking lot,” Malin said. “It’s a happy ending.”
