This story was originally shared on The Animal Rescue Site. Submit your own rescue story here. Your story just might be the next to be featured on our blog!

It was my first semester of graduate school. I was in a new town, apartment, and school. I didn't know a soul within a four-hour drive. I had been wanting a cat for months, but I kept talking myself out of adopting one from the shelter. 

One morning after the first freeze of the season, I was driving to a class. As I drove down the road, I heard birds chirping. I thought that was weird and began looking for the birds without luck. I continued to drive and realized that it was a cat meowing.

I looked around my car for a cat but didn't see one. I drove further, nearly to school at this point, when I realized there was a cat in my car engine. I parked at school and opened my hood with dread. The cat was howling, and I was terrified I'd find a gruesome scene.

Under the hood, there was no evidence of a cat, although anyone nearby could hear it. I called campus security, and they used their high powered flash light to search for the howling cat. Security could not find it. I drove, very carefully, to a garage next to campus.

The mechanics put my car in the air and began to search under the engine for the loud cat. It took several men to finally extract the mystery howler from my engine. It was a black kitten and perfectly healthy except for being spooked from going 60 mph in a car engine.

The mechanics told me that the cat was feral and to have it put down. I knew better and took the kitten home.

I decided to name him Ninja, seeing as how he had eluded a terrible fate from the car engine and hid successfully from security. The kitten and I instantly became friends. He was exactly what I needed in such a new environment. I knew he was in need of a good home.

Now three years later, he is the best companion I could have ever wanted.