A Calgary Transit driver discovered a stowaway on his bus on Wednesday morning and found a small kitten stuck in the wheel well when he pulled over.
The driver pulled over at the 69th Street Station in the southwest at about 6:00 a.m. because he thought he heard meowing.
“He could hear a cat meowing as he drove along Sarcee Trail. So he immediately pulled the bus over and certainly he got out and he could hear the cat’s meows, the cat was in distress inside the bus somewhere,” said Ron Collins from Calgary Transit.
“I could hear some meowing under the seat, under my bus seat, and I stopped on Sarcee and I looked, couldn’t find the cat, that’s when I called control and I drove up here to 69th Street and they saw the cat under the seat,” said driver Massimo Denegri.
Transit and Animal Services officials came out to help and found the little cat lodged in the wheel well.
“It took a couple of hours, the cat was obviously scared, and it’s a young cat, a kitten so, our guys were eventually able to reach in, and it was a very confined space in the bus where it was and they were able to pull it out,” said Collins.
The driver says there is a small opening under the bumper so it could have easily crawled in there when he picked up the bus at the Anderson garage to begin his route.
“While we were in the garage, under the bumper, there’s a little opening and he must of got in there somehow,” said Denegri.
“Happy ending to this story, our supervisor and an animal control officer were both able to rescue the cat so everything’s good and it sounds like our operator is thinking about actually adopting the little kitty now,” said Collins.
“First thing I said is, I want to adopt it if they do catch it,” said Denegri.
The kitten is now being assessed by Animal Services.
