When most of us were probably gathering together with our family for Christmas on last December 23, poor little Miracle was strayed somewhere in Newark. He kept walking to where his feet led him.

Suddenly a parked sport utility vehicle attracted his attention. His inquisitiveness then encouraged him to climb into the guts of the SUV. He played until he grew tired and fell asleep there. A moment later a sound of engine aroused him up from slumber. He started to panic when he realized his new home was moving. Terrified, the cat—yes, Miracle is a cat, mind you—clutched to where he could. After 70 miles of journey along the New Jersey Turnpike, a person at last noticed him through a wheel well. He was afterwards taken out.

The woman who was driving the SUV—she wished to remain anonymous—took him to the Animal Welfare Association in Voorhees, N.J. where they did not normally take in strays. He was in quite good condition despite some burnt paws and a missing claw. But nobody could ever tell how he escaped the fan blades inside the car.

Since then his journey have attracted more than twenty people already inquiring about adopting him, which is about 8 months old and about six pounds, as the shelter director, Karen Dixon-Aquino informed.
“It’s amazing that he lived,” she said. “I’ve never heard of one surviving the engine being turned on, let alone surviving a ride down the turnpike. He’s certainly used up 81/2 of his nine lives.”

Before Miracle, however, there have been several stories involving cats’ survival; including a year old kitten that stowed away in paper bales shipped from Wisconsin to Chicago, then to Belgium and France back in September. She made it back home, compliments of Continental Airlines, after the owners listed on her name tag were contacted.

The coauthor of the book “Mews Item: Amazing but True Cat Tales” says that cats find themselves surviving the most precarious situations. And Miracle, he said, would have made his book.