Every now and then, there’s a story that’s just worth telling.

This one is the “Lassie Come Home” kind of story or some ol’ redbone coonhound recollection. But it’s not about a dog. It’s the story of a frail little kitten that’s will to survive took it on a journey that could easily have been the end of the road for the little fellow.

On Friday morning, a scraggly, nervous little kitten showed up in my yard. Cat, my cat, sat on the porch watching the pitiful kitty scurry around the yard. I put a bowl of milk and a spoonful of crushed cat food under the cedar tree in hopes the wispy, hungry little thing would find it. I would decide what to do with the kitten when I got home.

When I left for work, the kitten was nowhere to be seen. The food was untouched.

Somewhere between Brundidge and Troy, the ‘Check Tire Pressure” light came on in my car so; I pulled into Huey’s service station to get the tires checked. As always, those folks are very helpful. Braxton Wilkins got the tire gauge but stopped stone still at the front of the car.

“There’s a cat in here,” he said bending down to look in the engine.

“Is it dead?” I moaned, in memory of slinging a friend’s cat to animal heaven in a similar fashion. But Braxton said no.

“Don’t you hear it?”

By this time, several men had gathered to listen and look and try to call the kitty out from the engine. It came down but not out. It ran back and forth under the car.

Finally, Braxton got the little trembling kitten and passed it along to me. I handed it over to Jeanette Dawkins, a bystander, in hopes she would deliver it to the animal shelter on her way back to work at TH&R.

It was a minor miracle that the kitten had survived the long drive from Brundidge to Troy, but what was even more amazing was that Huey’s crew had the same kitten on South Brundidge Street Thursday afternoon. It was crying and searching for its mama or perhaps crumbs of food to eat. A small pool of rainwater provided it with drinking water. The little kitten was on the street and then it was gone.

Gone .. into the engine of my car that was parked at The Messenger, right next to the attorneys’ office where it was last seen.

The little orphan kitten had ridden in the engine to Brundidge where it spent the night and caught a ride back to Troy Friday morning.

Good-hearted Jeanette couldn’t stand the thought of the little kitten being taken to the animal shelter. Right there on the spot, she adopted the kitten and christened it Nissan, for it was a Nissan that took the kitty on such an incredible journey.