2 Kittens Rescued From 'Purring' Engine In Hackettstown

HACKETTSTOWN, NJ — Workers at the site of the new QuickChek on Mountain Avenue reported to work, accidentally, with a pair of kittens riding shotgun on the engine of one of their construction vehicles Wednesday.

A mechanic told the Hackettstown Police they heard meowing from within the engine, opened the compartment and removed the pair of blue-eyed, fuzzy gray cats.

“It’s believed that the two kittens came from Freehold, and they survived the ‘workday’ on Wednesday,” Hackettstown Police Sgt. Darren Tynan said Thursday.

The small felines were likely to have journeyed to Hackettstown, not by choice, from a Freehold property where the equipment was kept. At that location, feral cats tend to congregate and employees had seen an adult cat jump from the vehicle the kittens were found in twice earlier in the week, police said.

In what the police department has coined a “purr-fect” ending, Tynan described the kittens as “dehydrated” though “expected to recover," with the two cats reportedly taken to the Common Sense for Animals shelter for further care.

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