Man cuts open his truck to save a kitten that was trapped inside

Errand Frazier of Vero Beach, Florida heard purring coming from inside his Chevy pickup truck. He wasn't sure what kind of animal it was; he couldn't see anything, and he didn't know what to do. He left an open can of cat food under one of his tires and set up a camera and played animal detective to try and figure out what was going on, CNN reports.

When he came back the next morning, the food was gone, but the video did not show an animal coming out to feed. He thought he was going crazy and hearing things.

He took a fishing trip to put it all behind him and clear his head, but when he arrived, there it was again...that purring sound. He couldn't take it anymore, so he got out his toolbox, wielded some sheet metal cutters, and took them to the back side of his truck. 

He cut a square flap out of the side of his truck and lo and behold, there was a teeny tiny kitten hidden inside. "I seen this little rascal peeking at me," Frazier said. "I said, 'What in the world? You hitched a ride!'"

Frazier didn't think twice about carving open his truck to potentially help an animal inside. He and his wife, Cindy, have a dog and two cats, and they are both animal lovers. Frazier has rescued stray kittens before and taken them to the shelter. It's almost like this little kitty knew that he would take care of her.

Although he could see the kitten under the bed of his truck, he couldn't get to her. So he reached out to the Humane Society of Vero Beach and Indian River County. He drove very slowly to the animal shelter and avoided any bumps to make sure the little kitten stayed safe the whole way there.

When he got there, he approached a staff member and said, "Ma'am, there's a kitten that hitchhiked from my home and I can't get it." She told him he "did a job" on his truck, which was very true. 

All in all, it took three staff members to help Frazier get the kitten out of the truck. Human Society staff member Tonya Martinez got under the truck to help push the kitten forward. Another staff member, Maria Valencia, put on gloves to try to catch the kitten as it was pushed through, and animal care supervisor Robyn Krajewski stood prepared with a carrier to help transport the little cat.

With all that effort, the little kitten was rescued. Safe and sound. The shelter estimated that she was about eight weeks old, and they named her Megan, which is adorable because human names for animals are the best.

A week later, the shelter invited Frazier back for a reunion with Megan, the tiny cat he found in his truck. The kitten purred in his arms, and he felt like that was a sign. "It was almost telling me, 'Thank you for saving my life,'" he said.

Megan has been adopted by a loving family with two teenage girls. It's safe to say that little kitten will be cherished for years to come. Director of education at the Humane Society Janet Winikoff shared the story of Frazier and Megan on the shelter's Facebook page, and people started asking if they could chip in to help pay for the repair to Frazier's truck.

Frazier's wife Cindy said they were both extremely touched by the immense support. The truck is their only car, and they weren't even going to look into repairing it because they wouldn't have been able to afford it. But they said they aren't worried about the truck and hoped others would donate their money to the humane society itself to help more animals.

"We really never expected all of this, to be honest, but God does blessings every day," Cindy said. "That's the reason that little kitten just showed up here — because God knew we would do whatever we needed to do to make sure that kitten was safe."

This article was originally published in August 17, 2020. It has since been updated.