Why this red tabby kitten has eight lives left
When Jade Berteau heard meowing in her engine, she freaked out.
“I had driven to work with the cat in my car,” said the Destrehan resident of a story that became Nissan’s big adventure in St. Charles Parish. “I could have totally killed this cat. I’m thinking ‘I need to get it out of my car.’”
Berteau adores animals so this was an unnerving discovery considering she’d heard the cat meowing from her engine while at home, but it suddenly went silent so she assumed the kitty had bolted and happily went to work.
While on a break, she and a fellow worker heard what sounded like meowing. Her friend listened harder and announced, ‘It’s coming from your car.’”
They popped open the hood and there, right under the air filter, was a freaked out orange tabby kitten trying to hide from them.
Panicked, Berteau called her mother’s boyfriend, Regis Maroney of Destrehan, for help. When he removed the air filter to rescue the kitten, it ran to the back of the car.
“It was like playing tag with us – running front to back of the car,” Berteau said. “Then it got quiet and we thought it ran off.”
So they put the filter back and went back to work, but 30 minutes later the meowing started again.
“Oh my God, it’s still in the car,” she winced. “I love animals … so if I had killed that cat I would have been devastated. I was refusing to leave work because I was not driving with it in my car.”
Maroney returned, but they couldn’t catch the critter. They called the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office and a deputy came. A bystander tried to lure it out with a dish of milk, but it didn’t work. Aided by the deputy, Maroney finally got an opening to grab the kitty and off he went to the parish’s Animal Shelter.
“I just wish they’d find it a home,” Berteau said. “It was so scared. It was just shaking.”
Having a pit bull, Berteau said it’s not possible for her to adopt him, but it’s important to note that her dog first alerted her to the cat being in her engine.
At the shelter, Jackie Boudreaux, president of the St. Charles Parish Humane Society, said the deputy who helped rescue the kitten also named him – Nissan.
Yes, that’s Berteau’s car where it hid and rode to work.The name stuck and this story looks like it is going to have a happy ending.
Besides, Boudreaux mused this was definitely a case of Nissan using up one of his nine lives.
“You know, if they’d cranked that motor up it would not have been good,” she said of Berteau at work. “I feel a lot of people, including the police officer, took the time to take the right steps to get that cat to safety.”
The help certainly made a difference in little Nissan’s life.
On arrival, this 5-month-old kitty was so frightened that shelter workers thought he was feral, but that was obviously not true when he calmed down and cuddled.
When he recently posed for his photo, it was clear he was ready for his forever home.
And he’s about to embark on his best new adventure with eight more lives to go.
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