Photo credit: Kevin Wheat
They say we shouldn’t bring our work home with us…but that wasn’t the case with Hanford, California traffic officer Kevin Wheat! Officer Wheat told the Hanford Sentinel he responded to a call around 10 am by an employee working an event that had noticed a noise coming from their car. A tiny cat had apparently crawled inside of a Dodge Caravan and was stuck between the fender and the engine compartment, and Wheat was charged with getting him out.
It took about an hour to remove the car’s tire and fender to get the little kitten out. Wheat said this was the first kitten rescue he’s done in six years as a police officer!
“They don’t train us at the academy in how to get a cat out of an engine compartment,” Wheat said.
Wheat took the kitty to the Kings County Animal Services shelter, where staff there gave him first dibs to adopt the tiny grey and white kitten.
“My wife and I weren’t exactly looking for a kitten, but when I heard that animal services wanted to give me first dibs on the cat adoption I figured it was a perfect opportunity to give the cat a new home with tons of love and attention,” Wheat told PEOPLE in an email on Wednesday.
Officer Wheat said he plans to keep the cat, who will be named Axle, as an indoor kitty so he won’t need to be rescued out of any more cars.
