-
Glenn and Susan Vaughn of Virigina returned home from Oktoberfest in Helen with more than memories. (Submitted photo)
After returning home from a trip to Helen last October for Oktoberfest, a Virginia family discovered a stowaway.
The night before Glenn and Susan Vaughn of Strasburg, Virginia, were set to make the 550-mile trip home, heavy rains doused the lot where their car was parked. After coming to a rest stop the following day, they heard what they believed to be a bird – then they heard it again at another stop and when they got home.
“The next day I was out cutting the grass, doing yard work and didn’t hear anything,” Glenn Vaughn said. “I had a dentist appointment the next day, it was about 25 miles from where we live, I heard that ‘bird’ again – except this time it sounded like a cat and I realized there was a kitten somewhere in there and was afraid she was in the engine.”
He turned around and went home to look for the cat, which the couple believes got under their car to get out of the rain.
When Vaughn opened the hood to check the engine, there was no animal. He then grabbed a flashlight, looked under his car and there was a kitten on a flat piece of metal where the kitten could move around. Fortunately, the animal wasn’t right at the engine.
“We couldn’t get her to come out of the car with us there. She was too scared,” he said. “We left her a plate full of tuna and watched her out of a window. She eventually came out and I finally got her trapped in a cat carrier.”
The four-week-old kitten at the time wasn’t injured, just hungry and thirsty, with a visit to the veterinarian following soon.
Vaugh said if the animal had been male, they would have named it Axel. Instead, the female kitten is called Helen, named after the city from where she came.
“We told the vet that story and she’s kind of a celebrity,” he said.
The couple sent their story to the City of Helen last week to share the good news.