A stray kitten took a trip through Minneapolis under a Metro Transit bus

A little kitten took a long ride from Minneapolis to Brooklyn Center on a Metro Transit bus Friday morning.

After a bus arrived at Brooklyn Center Transit Center an operator heard a kitten crying, seemingly somewhere in the bus. 

Daniel Kaus, mechanic technician at Martin J Ruter Garage, got a call asking if he was good with cats. 

“I said, ‘Cats? Do you mean caterpillar engines?’ And he said, ‘no, meow meow cats,’” Kaus said. 

He grabbed his jacket and hit the road. 

He heard the meows as he arrived – a kitten in distress. As the bus sits low, Kaus couldn’t really see underneath. He decided the best option was to slowly drive the bus back to the garage less than a mile away and lift it using a heavy-duty tire jack. 

Once the bus was lifted Kaus saw the kitten had moved from behind the center dual tires to a new spot, and was staring at Kaus, scared but waiting to be rescued. 

Kaus put on thick gloves and then tried to free the cat while it hissed and scratched. After he was free, the kitten ran around the garage and crawled into another bus and the process started over again. 

After the kitten came out of the second bus, he was put into a cardboard box with blankets, water and a fresh ham sandwich.

This was the first time Kaus rescued a cat from under a bus but said with the cold temperatures we have been having, it is common for cats to crawl under vehicles to stay warm.

While Kaus had dibs first on adopting the kitten, who he named Turbo because he was sitting near the turbocharger of the bus, he wasn’t sure how it would work with his two young kids. 

So instead Kaus’s friend and coworker Dan Jorgenson took Turbo to the vet in Coon Rapids to be checked out this afternoon and will be adopting him.

As of late Friday evening Jorgenson signed Turbo up for a health plan and was preparing the kitten for his new life, according to John Komarek, communications specialist with Metro Transit.