Woman spends two days locating a mystery meow in her car engine, only to find a well-hidden black kitten who hitchhiked for miles and stole her heart

Ayala Sorotsky • Writer and Editor

Jun 4, 2026 12:45 PM EDT

Black cats are called voids for a reason, it seems - this one kitten was so hard to find to be rescued.

It's not only that kittens find themselves in the most unlikely of places before they get adopted, but when we're talking about black cats, it's even more prevalent. There's already the persistent stigma about black cats and bad luck (which is absolutely not true, mind you), so they tend to be pushed to the bottom of any adoption list. But then, in cases like this one of a woman from r/CatDistributionSystem, where the willingness to adopt the kitten in need is there, it's even harder to find them because of their fur color. Such a plonter.

Now add the fact that this kitten was hidden in such a tangly place - not the flowerbed in front of your house - but inside the tube-y mess of a car hood, and you have a disasterpiece of potential complexities. Now, now, this is not the first cat to be stuck inside a car's engine, by any means. But add together the size of a small kitten and the pitch-black fur color, and you've got such a low chance of success for a rescue… yet, it succeeded. Which is already a delight in and of itself.

Most kittens have this instinct to meow when in distress. Sometimes, though, stress and fear might make them freeze in silence. But, lucky for this void kitten, using the right meow at the right time is what got it out of this dangerous situation. Even here, it's not the first time a kitten's meow led to its adoption, but here it's even more critical to the successful kitten rescue we're seeing here.

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You can barely see the cat in these pictures, but it's right there. Looking at it, we understand the situation much more - this cat is the champion of Hide & Seek. No wonder it was that hard to spot the kitten. Just look how well it's hidden, even when they peep to see what's going on outside the car's hood.
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Imagine the surprise! We know our hearts would skip a few beats if, after so much time searching for the lost kitten we'd meow, and hear the kitten meow back at us. It must have been a happy moment, colored with the imminent feeling of a rescue coming. Because now she knows there's a kitten to be saved…
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Aww, so cute! We love that she decides to officially adopt this void princess into her family. With this long journey they took together (literally and figuratively), we're sure they'd be a purrfect match. The CDS really does know what it's doing.
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