Dave’s wife drives the family Opel 60 km daily to get to work, through tons of traffic. It’s averages about a 2-hour trip there and back at rush hour. One evening after arriving home, she tells Dave there’s a funny noise coming from her car engine.

Dave takes a look and finds a teeny tiny black and white kitten yowling his heart out. It was shaking from fright,” said Dave. “My wife had driven 60km on the country’s busiest and deadliest highways and roads with this kitten in the engine! But that’s not all – so I’m holding the trembling kitten and I count four feet, two ears and ONE eye – the poor thing!”

They rush the kitten to the vet, and discover that although he has only one eye, he didn’t suffer any major injuries from his wild ride. The vet estimated that he was about eight weeks old.

Dave and his family adopt the kitten, whom they call Sneax (because his bright white paws look like sneakers and he ‘sneaked’ into the car).

Fast forward two months. Sneax has happily taken over the household and is an integral part of the family. When he’s not napping, he enthusiastically chases the mouse pointer on Dave’s computer screen, attacks errant shoelaces, and knocks evil fridge magnets onto the floor. Dave claims that Sneax wants to be Spiderman when he grows up.

[LINK: bizcommunity.com]

[PHOTO: tinypic.com]

This last guy is all whiskers!

Don’t forget! You can leave a comment on this post for an entry in The Cat’s Meow’s giveaway of a custom oil painting of your cat by Linden Alley.

[PHOTO CREDITS: edopter.com; rockytheguttercat.com; stuffonmycat.com; courierpostonline.com; flickr; flickr; rockytheguttercat.com; flickr]

The ashes of former first cat, Socks Clinton, have been scattered in the rose garden at the Governor’s Mansion (see photo, below right) in Arkansas. The ceremony was attended by Linda Dixon of the Clinton Presidential Library and first lady Ginger Beebe, who read a poem she wrote in honor the famous tuxie.

On a porch just outside the kitchen, a plaque was erected to honor Socks, the Clinton’s family cat. The plaque notes that Socks was first cat of Arkansas from 1991 to 1993 and first cat of the United States from 1993 to 2001. “When (the Clintons) lived at the mansion that’s where Socks hung out, on the back porch there,” said Ron Maxwell, administrator of the mansion.

The Clintons adopted Socks when they were living at the Governor’s Mansion in 1991. Socks moved with the family to the White House when Bill Clinton was elected president. When the Clintons left the White House, Socks went to live with the Clinton’s secretary, Betty Currie, at her home in Maryland, a move that left many cat lovers furious with the Clintons.

Last year, Socks was diagnosed with cancer, and was euthanized on February 20th of this year. Reportedly, after Socks’ death, Betty Currie said she felt, “awful, awful, awful.”

The small urn in which the ashes were contained was later taken to the Clinton Presidential Library.

Maxwell said the ashes were scattered after a small ceremony attended by a few people, including Linda Dixon of the Clinton Presidential Library and first lady Ginger Beebe, who read a poem she wrote in honor the cat.

Inspired, perhaps, by The Cat’s Meow’s “Road Trip” series, a plucky tuxie kitten miraculously survived a drive from Maine to New Hampshire this week inside the engine compartment of a car into which he’d climbed.

Firefighters rescued him from under the hood of a car parked at a local hospital. By all accounts, a patient from Kennebunk, Maine, drove to Dover, New Hampshire with the kitty hanging out next to the engine.

Kenney — named by the Cocheco Valley Humane Society staff to honor his hometown — caught the attention of people in a passing car, according to Deputy Fire Chief Eric Hagman.

“The cat climbed out of that car and ran over and climbed up another car,” the chief said. “The second car was owned by an employee of the hospital, so she came out and unlocked the car and popped the hood and that let the crew reach into where the cat was hiding” near the engine.

Animal Control was summoned, and before long, Kenney was a vibrating lump of purr in the arms of Elisabeth Shuter, the shelter’s medical manager.

“He’s just as comfortable in your arms as he can be,” she said.

Kenney’s whiskers were singed, but otherwise appeared to be none the worse for his adventure. The Humane Society’s staff expected that the 10-week, two-pound cutie would be adopted soon after their doors opened for business at 11.

“We’re going to have at least 20 people at the door” after people see his picture in the newspaper, she said, confident he’ll be a “purrrr-fect fit” for the right home.

[LINK/PHOTOS: WMUR.com and Fosters.com]

Cats and dogs are supposed to be mortal enemies, but it seems a mother’s love can overlook the interspecies differences.

A black cat with white paws is nursing two puppies so young their eyes aren’t even open yet and another 3-week-old adopted kitten.

The cat, which doesn’t have a name, was brought in to Rock Island County Animal Care and Control with her own litter of kittens. Some of the kittens died and the remaining ones were weaned when the young kitten arrived at the shelter.

Shelter staff put the black kitten in with the mom and she took to it right away. But when the puppies were found in Moline late last week, there weren’t any nursing dogs to serve as a foster mom to the delicate pups.

“We didn’t know what we were going to do,” said Sam DeYoung, operations director of Animal Care and Control. “They didn’t have their eyes open, they were 1-week-old, so we decided to try putting them with the momma cat, and they latched on and away they went.”

The cat takes her mothering duties seriously, letting anyone who puts a hand in her crate know that these are her babies and they are not to be touched.

The kitten is more than twice the size of the puppies, whose cries for milk are barely audible. They climb all over each other, vying for a better spot to feed from. It’s too early to tell what breed the puppies are, but shelter staff can tell by their tiny size that they are a small-breed dog.

“She’s just an all-around supermom,” said Laurel Harmening, animal caretaker at the shelter. “She just loves being a mom.”

The shelter is overrun with cats and kittens right now and finding foster homes that can bottle feed kittens and puppies every three hours is a challenge. So the cat is saving two foster homes by nursing the kitten and puppies, as well as delivering nutrients and immunities that they can’t get from formula.

The kitten will stay with the cat until it is weaned, and the puppies will stay with their unlikely foster mom for about two weeks before going to a foster home. DeYoung said anyone interested in adopting the animals should wait about eight weeks before contacting the shelter, because it will take that long to get all the animals altered and vaccinated.

Rock Island Animal Care and Control
4001 78th Avenue
Moline IL 61265
Phone: (309) 558-DOGS (3647)

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The neighbors had packed up to move to California the day Beans disappeared. When they unpacked in San Diego, they got a little bonus: a black and white cat who just wanted to add a little Spring Break excitement to her life. Beans enjoyed a week or so in Sunny So Cal before being flown back to the heartland–and she brought some sunshine with her.

• Watch a video report here.