Have you ever seen an animal on the highway and wanted to do something about it? Well, this extremely recent, factual story is about two guys who actually did something about it on a five hour road trip. Dante and his friend Caleb currently go to Iowa State University. They decided to come visit Saint Louis over the weekend, so they made a solid five hour road trip down.
As they were riding down the highway, Caleb who was in the passenger seat, spotted a white and orange flutter. He then realizes it's a kitten and shouts to Dante, "There is a kitten on the median!" Dante, unaware of what is going on swerves out of panic, but keeps moving forward. Dante then planned to take the next exit and go back to try and find this abandoned cat left on the highway median. It took about three miles until the next exit where they could return to the cat. Caleb and Dante were 100 percent committed even though Dante was just going off Caleb's word. They started going back to find the cat and this white and orange flutter was no longer there. They kept searching, looking every which way and Dante was hitting the rumbler strips looking for this kitten.
Finally, after searching for a few minutes they see the kitten! Yells of excitement come out of Dante and Caleb. The car came to a screeching halt as Dante slammed on the brakes making the car go from 70mph to 0mph in 1.5 seconds. They then stop at the nearest exit and just park on the shoulder. Dante and Caleb run out of the car on to the median of the interstate with semis passing every which way. They see the kitten in the distance and the kitten hisses at Dante, but then finally warms up to him after they got closer. Caleb then scoops up the cat into a little zipper blanket and the cat is hissing and clawing at them. They then run down the interstate trying to avoid cars and reach safely with the hissing kitten.
Once they are in the car, the cat climbs out of the bag and sniffs around whole car. Caleb then gave the kitten some salmon they had leftover in his car. The kitten started purring immediately as it must have been extremely hungry. After Caleb fed the kitten, he saw a bug come out of the kitten's left fur cheek over the left eye and nose and then it went back into right eyebrow. Later, fifteen more started crawling away from face. Caleb then realized all these bugs and the dirt on his face was actually fleas.
After Dante hears about all these fleas, he parks at the nearest stream to pour water on the kitten and scrub it with soap. Then he has the idea of tying paws together so the kitten doesn't scratch them while they are trying to bathe the kitten. They then poured water on him and scrubbed soap all over. The fleas became very evident as they are washing him and blood starts to rush out of the kitten's head. Dante then dumps the kitten in the stream and pulls it out and sets the kitten down. However, the kitten is so weak that it is not able to stand. They honestly thought they killed this poor kitten.
Caleb and Dante then head back on the road and now Caleb is driving. Dante keeps the kitten warm by blasting heat and putting the kitten between his legs. It begins to sleep and Dante is unsure if it's truly asleep or just dead. Later, the kitten wakes up and a sense of relief fills the both of them, however, the kitten is extremely weak. The kitten then pees all over the car and all over Caleb's clothes because Dante and Caleb gave the kitten too much water. They arrive in Saint Louis with peed on clothes, flea infected blankets and clothes, and possibly Caleb and Dante were infected as well.
Unsure of what to do with the kitten at midnight, they find a drying machine by a dumpster and put the kitten in there and make sure it is closed enough where it cannot escape, but still able to breathe. The kitten stays there overnight and then Caleb and Dante wake up early to take the kitten to an animal hospital close by.
