This a pet story hat has a happy ending. It was January 9th, 2001 and I was coming home for lunch on an icy bitterly cold day. As I pulled into my driveway I noticed a small orange ball of fur on my driveway. And I thought, "GREAT! A cat." I got out of the call and yelled, "GET OUT OF HERE". But the animal didn't move. So, I thought it was dead and went to get a box out of the trash that was also at the end of the driveway. As I got closer to the cat, I noticed he wasn't very large, in fact, he was a very scrawny kitten. Evidently, someone had thrown him out of a car window and into my concrete driveway.The kitten had broken teeth, an eye that was swollen shut, scratches on his face (which broke his fall), and frostbite.

I put him in a paper ream box that was in the trash and brought him inside. I told the workmen that were still finishing up that " brought them some pussy." They were really excited until they learned I meant a kitten.

I put the box with the kitten on a chair close to the fireplace so it could thaw out. I also put a bowl of water in there and a few bits of lunchmeat. (Like I had cat food or something?) I let the kitten lie there thinking it would not live. I thought, well at least it will be warm when it does.

The kitten's breathing was quite hysterical. Every second or so it would make a sniffing sound that would rattle, and it sounded sort of like a "pig's oink". So for the day, I called him "oink".

A day had passed and the kitten was still alive. I talked it over with Laurie and we felt that if we took it to the humane society they would just put it to sleep. I didn't think that was fair, and neither did she. So, we took it to the vet and lo and behold $300.00 later we had a free kitten. We were told to lock it in a room and put a warm air humidifier on it, to help the kitten breathe.

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	Here is the pic AFTER he was cleaned up...so you can imagine how much worse it was before! I thought it was very smart of this kitten to sit on the humidifier and let the warm moist air help him breathe.
He gained weight and grew into this beautiful cat today. Laurie named him Axel Foley because cars have axles and foley drive is where he was found.

The Miracle Cat

July 1, 2004
We were having carpeting installed on the 1st and 2nd. The carpet guys arrived at about 6:45 am. My wife was getting ready to leave for the office. She cracked open the door to open the garage door for the workmen. Usually the cat hears the door open and runs toward it to spend the day in the house on a warm windowsill or napping somewhere else. Well, today, Lollie didn't hear him come in. I looked around in the garage before Lollie left and and cat was nowhere to be found...I figured he was just being a brat and had gone out the garage door. I loaded Luke in the car and Lollie left. I spent an hour looking outside for the cat before I gave up and went to work.

Later that day, I went home for lunch and spent another hour looking around for the cat and I could not locate him anywhere. I figured, as before, he would turn up eventually. Although worried, I said a prayer. I said, "God, please watch over Axel. Please bring him home to me, or take him home to You." I then went back to the office, feeling better about the whole situation.

Anyhow, at 4:15 Lollie called me and told me she was leaving the office to pick up Luke and asked if I would meet her at the grocery store at 4:45. We love to grocery shop together and I accepted. She asked me if I had heard anything about the cat. I told her that I had looked and said a prayer for him.

At 4:20 PM I received another phone call from Lollie. "I have the cat.", she said. My heart sank and I feared the worst. She explained that as she was leaving the base she passed over some railroad tracks and heard a "thump". She looked in her rear view mirror and saw the little orange furball in the middle of the road in the middle of rush hour traffic leaving the Base. Lollie immediately pulled the car over somehow (there was no shoulder), and ran back towards the cat in the middle of the road as cars were swerving around him. As she approached a huge delivery truck apparently did not see the cat and drove over him.

Lollie feared the worst. As the truck drove by, she again saw the little furball in the middle of the lane. After the truck passed overhead, Axel made a run for it and ran straight off the road to a brick wall. Lollie said that the cat was trying to jump over the brick wall but failed. Lolle called to the kitty saying "Here Axel, Mommy's here!" The cat ran around the corner and hid in a bush. Lollie saw him and picked him up. Axel put one paw on each of her shoulders and buried his head in Lollie neck as if to say, "Save me!"

She told me to meet her at Barbie's house where she was picking up Luke to get the cat. En route I called the vet and explained that I had a cat that was caught in a car and needed urgent medical attention. I must have gotten to Barb's house in like three minutes. It's normally a 10 minute drive from my office. An eternity later, Lollie drove up and I ran toward the car and said, "where's the cat?" She told me, "in the front underneath the dash". I opened the car door and saw the little heap of dirty orange fur and scooped him up. As I picked him up he turned to me and put his paws on my shoulders and his head in my neck. I took him to the vet as quickly as possible.

I explained to Dr. Lesch the situation. What must have happened is that somehow the cat was underneath the car in the undercarriage and stayed there from before 7 AM and rode ALL the way to Barb's house (a 15 minute highway drive) then ALL the way to Scott Airbase (another 15 minute drive) and stayed there ALL DAY in the hot sun. He finally fell out at the end of the day when Lollie drove over RR tracks and caused him to fall out.

See, if you know anything about cars, the undercarriage of a car gets quite hot as you drive. It can easily be over 100 degrees or more. The fact that Axel not only endured this heat and ride for over a half an hour, then stayed with the car under the hot sun all day is nothing short of a miracle. I prayed to God to watch over him and my prayers were answered. Axel truly is a Miracle Cat.