Stowaway kitten makes remarkable trip from SD to MN

MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - A stowaway kitten made a remarkable trip to Minnesota before her consistent meowing kept the neighbors up on a Minneapolis street. In all, the cat likely spent two days and more than 200 miles hiding in a car.

The meowing began Thursday, when the relatives of a neighbor drove from South Dakota and parked their car on 11th Avenue; the pair then flew to Alaska. Shauna Sperber said her aunt and uncle first heard meows in South Dakota, but the sounds went away before they began driving from their farm near Brookings.

"When I brought them to the airport, they jokingly said, 'in case you hear a cat, don't be alarmed,'" Sperber told Fox 9.

As neighbors heard the meows, they started inventing methods of getting the cat to come outside.

"[We] spent four or five hours on Friday trying to coax the cat out with tuna, salmon, a box to climb into -- with no success," Matt Larson told Fox 9.

But on Saturday afternoon, the neighbors popped the hood and could see a foot and tail. They removed a small piece of the engine compartment, and Mike Nash grabbed the cat.

"I knew in my mind, if I pulled her out, I'd probably keep her," Nash told Fox 9.

Nash said the decision to keep the cat was easy, but picking the name is a little more difficult.

"We thought about 'Nissan,' the car she came in on. 'Dakota' where she came from. But she's pretty darn lucky, so 'Lucky' might be the one that sticks," Nash said.