Tiny cries lead woman to a pile of newborn kittens on the roof of her car
Last month, Jennifer Jones’ son came back from taking out the trash with some strange news: He heard meowing coming from the family Jeep.
Jones followed her son out to the driveway to investigate. Her husband had covered the Jeep with a tarp to protect it from the elements, but when they pulled it back to check for animals, they couldn’t find any in the wheel wells or behind the seats.
Then, as her son lifted the tarp completely off the car, Jones saw a small face.
“I was at the back of the Jeep,” Jones told The Dodo, “and I look up and I see a little head peek up.”
Jones climbed onto the back bumper, where she discovered three newborn kittens huddled together on the roof of the Jeep. As Jones and her son wondered what to do next, the mama strolled up and parked herself under the car.
Jones’ neighborhood in Bowie, Maryland, just east of Washington, D.C., has a local cat colony. She quickly realized she’d seen Mama hanging out for several days in their yard, but had no idea the cat was pregnant.
Jones worried that moving or handling the kittens too much would scare Mama away, but a thunderstorm was rolling in that night. Thinking quickly, she placed the babies in a shoebox on the Jeep roof, gently covered them with a towel and called Paul Nadler at Bowie Citizens for Local Animal Welfare (CLAW).
Nadler arrived a few hours later, just as the rain started.
Jones managed to keep the babies dry without scaring away Mama, who sat protectively on the hood of the Jeep as Nadler set up a trap on the ground.
“I put the babies in a transfer cage,” Nadler told The Dodo. “What we try to do is then put a trap adjacent to it, so Mom will try to rescue the kittens."
After a few minutes and some redirection from Nadler, Mama and babies were safely secured and transferred to a foster home.
In all his years of working with Bowie CLAW, Nadler has never seen a cat mama hide her days-old kittens on top of a car.
He clarified that she didn't give birth up there, “but for whatever reason, she decided to put them up there."
Typically, Nadler sees feral cats hiding newborns under porches or in more secure places on the ground. Jones saw a family nestled into her woodpile once. But never on top of a Jeep.
Commenters on a Facebook post about the rescue theorized that Mama wanted to protect the babies from predators or let them warm up in the sun.
Whatever her thinking, the babies are now safe with their foster, Lori Arduino, where they’re getting plenty of milk from Mama, who's since been named Lumen.
"Lumen is still very much learning to trust," Arduino told The Dodo, "but she’s not completely shut off. She actually allows pets while she’s nursing ... there’s a sweet, affectionate side in there."
The kittens also have names and are doing remarkably well.
"Halo tends to be the strongest and most robust," Arduino said. "Flash is steady and consistent, and Aura has that resilient, fighter energy."
Aura arrived much smaller than her siblings but is meeting all her milestones.
Once the babies are weaned, they'll be ready for their forever homes.
"Lumen may need a different path given her feral nature," Arduino said. "It’s like she clearly wants connection and comfort — she just doesn’t fully understand it yet. You can see her trying, and that’s what makes her really special."
