Syracuse, N.Y. — Shawn Cathcart was approached by a security guard in a Syracuse parking lot Thursday morning about a strange noise coming from his truck.
Your truck is meowing, the person said. I think there is a cat under your hood.
Cathcart, who lives in New Haven in Oswego County, said he was at Crouse Hospital for a doctor’s appointment when the meowing was discovered. He and others worked for an hour trying to get the cat out. A worker from the hospital brought out a ladder to climb up and look down into the engine area, but no luck.
Suddenly for 20 minutes, the meowing stopped. He thought the cat had somehow run off. But as he started to drive, the meowing started again.
Cathcart brought his Silverado pickup to a Chevrolet dealership in East Syracuse, about a 12-minute ride down Interstate 690.
He said no one laughed at him when he pulled into West Herr Chevrolet of East Syracuse off Bridge Street. Instead, eight mechanics and others jumped into action.
James Gustina, a service adviser, said everyone could hear the meowing.
He and three technicians pulled out their flashlights and searched throughout the truck trying to find the cat.
“I could hear it meowing, but we couldn’t figure out where it was,” Gustina said. “I was just thinking that it was getting burnt.”
They finally found the cat near the plastic cowl that goes over the window wiper transmission
Cathcart said he doesn’t know how the cat got there. He said it’s possible it rode all the way from Oswego to Syracuse, about a 37-mile trip
In order to get to the cat, Gustina asked Cathcart if he was ok with taking the truck apart.
“The first thought was tear it apart, do what you need to do,” Cathcart said. “I didn’t want the cat to be hurt. It had ridden a long way in the engine compartment, and I didn’t want to scare it anymore or have the darn thing get hurt.”
They quickly got to taking pieces off the truck.
“We pulled the wiper arms off, started pulling the cowl off and I spotted the cat,” Gustina said. “Then we had to remove the wiper transmission and I actually got a hold of the cat and pulled him out.”
The cat turned out to be a little gray kitten. Gustina said besides a little dirt and being shaken up, the kitten was ok.
Cathcart said he was ready to take care of it and later have him adopted. But that quickly changed after the kitten got into Gustina’s arms.
“It was almost crazy how fast that cat just took to him,” Cathcart said.
Gustina already has five cats, but that didn’t stop him.
“I texted my wife immediately and was like, ‘I’m bringing this cat home,” he said.
He has named the kitten Diesel, in reference to the diesel Silverado truck where the kitten was found.
“We already have an appointment for Saturday for him at the vet,” he said.
The dealership didn’t charge Cathcart for taking his truck apart to rescue the cat. To say thank you, Cathcart spent $80 to have 10 pizzas delivered to the car dealership.
The message on the receipt was simple: Thanks for rescuing my cat.
Staff writer Timia Cobb covers breaking news. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? You can reach her at tcobb@syracuse.com.
