Ohio Take 5 Oil Change Manager Adopts Kitten Trapped in Customer’s Vehicle

An ordeal at a Take 5 Oil Change in Toledo, Ohio, led to a stray kitten finding a new home with the store’s manager, reports The Blade.

When Heidi Betz took her car into the Secor Road shop, she had been hearing sounds, and suspected it to be one of the many stray cats she feeds around her home.

“When I got into my car I thought I heard something, like my windshield wipers, making a noise. I popped my hood but I did not see anything,” said Betz.

Sure enough, technicians at the shop were able to find an approximately four-week-old black kitten hiding behind the vehicle’s wheel well.

“We were all very surprised,” said Haydon Mitchell, assistant store manager. “This is the first time I have seen a cat in an oil shop. The lady lives near a farm so I am thinking this is a barn kitten.”

Store manager Auston Viengmany, who had been considering adopting another cat, was immediately smitten by the kitten. The kitten, now named Hybrid, has found a home with Viengmany.

“I have a soft spot for animals,” Viengmany said. “Mrs. Betz was going to take the cat home, but I told her I wanted to take her. It was an easy decision.”

While animals hiding in vehicles is common in the winter, it’s something that happens all year round, as pointed out by Brooke Dutridge, founder of Fur Angels Rescue Shelter.

“Yes, we do get a lot of calls in winter, but this time of year is also very busy with calls concerning cats in engines,” Dutridge said. “If a cat or kitten is scared they will go to where they feel is a safe place. Many times that may be a car. Really, many times the cats and kittens found on the side of the road or on the highway may have fallen from a car.”