January 3, 2006
BY LAWRENCE HAJNA
GANNETT NEW JERSEY

VOORHEES, N.J. -- If cats do indeed have nine lives, Miracle must have used up eight of his on a drive down the New Jersey Turnpike.

Photo: Veterinary technician Samantha Bosse holds Miracle, an 8- or 9-month-old male cat who survived a trip from Newark to Cherry Hill while in the engine compartment of a sport-utility vehicle. Miracle is now up for adoption at the Animal Welfare Association in Voorhees.

In an incredible tale of survival, the gray and white domestic shorthair somehow clung for about 70 miles under a sport-utility vehicle that was headed from Newark to Cherry Hill two days before Christmas.

"I'm just amazed that the cat didn't fall off or get blown off. That's why we're calling him Miracle," said Karen Dixon-Aquino, director of the Animal Welfare Association here.

The association is now caring for the feline hitchhiker.

Another motorist spotted the cat through the wheel well of the SUV as it was nearing Exit 4 of the turnpike.

The motorist flagged down the SUV's driver and yelled to her, "There's a cat under your car!" Dixon-Aquino said. "I would imagine he was hanging on for dear life."

She speculated the cat had climbed inside the SUV in Newark, warming up by its engine. He probably was asleep when the SUV's driver left for her home in Cherry Hill.

But while most cats under similar circumstances would have become badly mangled by fan blades or other moving parts, Miracle somehow found a safer perch on the drive train, Dixon-Aquino said.

Miracle's journey ended when the SUV's driver took the frightened cat to the Animal Welfare Association.

"He was pretty freaked out," Dixon-Aquino said. "His paws were burnt, one claw was missing and his fur was singed."

He's about 8 or 9 months old and wore only a flea collar.

The Voorhees shelter contacted a shelter in Newark, but no one had claimed the cat in the seven days that the owner has to come forward.

He's now up for adoption and will be injected with a tracking microchip.

"We want to make sure he goes to someone who will keep him inside so he doesn't take another trip," Dixon-Aquino said.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060103/NEWS03/601030344/1007/NEWS02