A cat lover who just so happens to be a correction officer stopped for an oil change, and left with more than he bargained for.
“It’s like she just fell into my lap and said, ‘Take me, take me,’” Rodriguez said. “Because it ’s Christmas, it makes everything much more special.”
Rodriguez decided to adopt the six-month-old cat after rescuing the cat at the Boston Road Lube — where he stopped last Monday for just a quick oil change.
The 48-year-old was waiting for his car when he heard a worker pop the hood of another vehicle and yell, “Look, you have a cat in there!”
Rodriguez, already the owner of a cat adopted from an American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals shelter, carefully removed the kitty from its cramped spot behind the engine and beneath the windshield.
“There was a little crevice, and she was really stuck in there,” he said. “She wasn’t scratching or trying to fight, just meowing like, ‘Get me out of here.
Baby the cat was the best Christmas gift Joe Rodriguez could’ve possibly asked for.
Other customers used their smart phones to snap photos of the trapped cat both with before and after shots of the rescue.
It was unclear how long the kitty had been hitching a hidden ride in the vehicle, although animals do often find shelter from the cold or rain by climbing under the hoods of cars.
The cat — christened “Baby”— had a broken jaw which needed to be wired shut and surgery to remove an infected uterus by ASPCA’s Dr. Janice Fenichel.
The last thing Joe Rodriguez expected to come home with was a cat after getting an oil change.
After the cat spent two days receiving treatment, Rodirugez brought his new “Baby” home right on Christmas Eve.
“Joe is really a Christmas hero,” said ASPCA spokeswoman Anita Edson.
Photos by ANITA KELSO EDSON/ASPCA / Joe Rodriguez
