“I was like, ‘No one is going to believe this.’”
What started as a normal drive quickly turned into the surprise of a lifetime.
While cruising down a quiet country road in Louisiana, Lindsey casually glanced in her rearview mirror — only to lock eyes with a tiny kitten sitting upright in her back seat, staring curiously right at her.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Lindsey, who preferred not to share her last name, told The Dodo. “I thought, ‘There’s no way anyone’s going to believe this.’”
At first, she assumed it was just one stray kitten. But then she began to hear faint rustling sounds from beneath her seat — and moments later, a cat’s head popped up near her armrest.
“I realized the mom was in there, too,” Lindsey said.
She quickly pulled into a nearby gas station to investigate and discovered that three kittens and their mother had somehow taken up residence inside her car. After some quick thinking, Lindsey remembered that she’d accidentally left her trunk open earlier in the day, giving the little feline family the perfect hiding spot.
“I joke that lost animals always seem to find me,” she said. “It happens all the time, so I just took it as the universe assigning me another rescue mission.”
Lindsey brought the cats home, setting them up in a cozy corner of her apartment. The mother cat settled in easily, while her playful babies explored their new surroundings with wild enthusiasm.
“The mom is super calm,” Lindsey said with a laugh. “The kittens, though — total chaos.”
She affectionately named the mom Mamba and the kittens Teeny, Tiny, and Chonk. Though she adored them, Lindsey knew they’d be better off at a rescue that could provide full veterinary care. She reached out to Kat Vet, a local animal rescue, who happily agreed to take the whole family.
At the shelter, Mamba didn’t just care for her own kittens — she even adopted several orphans who had recently lost their mother, welcoming them as her own.
Now, the entire furry crew is safe, healthy, and thriving. Once the kittens are old enough and fully weaned, they’ll all be ready for adoption through Kat Vet.
Lindsey still laughs when she thinks about that drive — and the surprise passengers she unknowingly brought along.
“I’ll never forget looking in that mirror,” she said. “I thought I was just going for a drive — turns out, I was rescuing a whole family.”