A Stranger Honked Like Crazy at Their Car. A Tiny Kitten Was Hanging On Underneath

Nicole Motahari and her husband, Brandon Lou, were just trying to get to school on time.

It was the morning of Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. They had stopped at the Abernathy Publix in Sandy Springs, Georgia, to pick up birthday cupcakes for Motahari’s students. A completely normal errand.

Then a car came up behind them with the driver honking like crazy.

“There’s a Cat Hanging Under Your Car”

“After we left, suddenly, this woman came up on us, honking her horn like crazy,” Motahari told Rough Draft Atlanta. “She said, ‘There’s a cat hanging under your car.'”

Even in rush-hour traffic, the couple stopped right in the middle of the road and searched the car. They couldn’t find anything.

So they kept going, carefully, toward North Springs High School, where Motahari teaches journalism and literature. And somewhere along the way, they heard it: a faint little “mew, mew” coming from the front right side of the car.

A Very Determined Stowaway

The sound was coming from a tiny black kitten wedged deep inside the car’s wheel well. According to the Sandy Springs Fire Department, the kitten was stuck in the car’s shock absorber.

The couple believes the kitten climbed into the car back at their condo complex, Stonington, about a mile from the store, and then somehow hung on for the ride to Publix and part of the way to school.

“Not exactly the morning commute any of us had planned,” Motahari said.

And this little passenger had no intention of coming out on his own.

Three Firefighters and Two Police Officers

Sandy Springs Fire and the Sandy Springs Police Department answered the call.

“It ultimately took three firefighters and two police officers from Sandy Springs to free our very small (and apparently very determined) stowaway,” Motahari said.

It was slow, careful work, but in the end the crew got the kitten out safely. The fire department later shared pictures of the rescue on Facebook, saying its personnel “were able to safely remove the trapped feline.”

Six Weeks Old and 1.2 Pounds

Motahari and Lou took the kitten straight to a veterinarian. That’s where they found out just how tiny their stowaway really was: about six weeks old and only 1.2 pounds.

At that point, there was really only one way this could end.

“Naturally, after all that excitement, we couldn’t exactly send him on his way. So now we have a kitten,” Motahari said. “We are feeding him whenever he wants until he gets up to 2 pounds.”

They named him Friday Shadow.

The ordeal doesn’t seem to have slowed him down one bit. He still has a talent for squeezing into places he shouldn’t be. “With a cat that small, there’s no safe space,” Motahari said. “He disappeared under a bathroom cabinet. We couldn’t find him, then we opened the drawer, and there he was.”

A Little Halloween Miracle

The timing turned out to be almost too perfect. Motahari and Lou got married on Halloween, and now a tiny black kitten had shown up just a few weeks before their anniversary.

“Somehow, this tiny black kitten managed to show up just in time to become the most unexpected anniversary present we could have imagined,” Motahari said. The couple has been calling him their little Halloween miracle.

These days, Friday spends most of his time cuddling and demanding their full attention. “The baby is recovering safely in her new home and is doing well!” the fire department wrote, adding that the new parents have set up a wishlist for anyone who would like to help.

Motahari says the real heroes are the firefighters and officers who showed up that morning. “They went out of their way to save a tiny little life, and thanks to them, Friday is now safe, spoiled, and settling into his new home,” she said.

And somewhere out there is a stranger who honked her horn like crazy at a car she didn’t know. Without her, this story might have ended very differently.