The Rankin family was driving down I-480 in Omaha, Nebraska, when they spotted a cat clinging to the roof of a van driving in the lane next to them.
“So this happened yesterday on I-480,” Ronda Rankin wrote in the video that she shared that has since gone viral.
Ronda said she was able to alert the drivers of the van so they could pull off the interstate and rescue the cat.
She reassured viewers that the drivers weren’t laughing. “They were shocked and scared! They immediately pulled over,” she wrote on Facebook. “We watched them in our rear view mirror. The cat was still there when they stopped so I’m hopeful all ended well.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSD4Wfd-hPk
And it did. The owner was tracked down and said her cat is thankfully okay. Michelle Criger told KETV NewsWatch 7 her cat must have hitched the ride and travelled for several miles through their neighborhood on top of their van before the hair-raising turn on the highway.
“Just before he came alongside me and started honking, I thought I heard a ‘meow,’ and I didn’t say anything to my boyfriend because I’m thinking to myself, ‘Why would I hear a meow?’”
Criger said they pulled over on Interstate 480 after Ronda alerted them and they realized it was their cat on the roof.
“When I got him off the roof of the van, he wasn’t scared at all,” said Criger. “He wasn’t shaking, heart racing, nothing. We were more scared than him.”
From the looks of the video, their cat was pretty scared, but he must have been very relieved the van stopped and to be inside the van for the trip home. Watch the lucky cat’s freaky ride in the video below.
As for how he ended up on top of their car, “He takes off, does what he wants,” Criger said. “He’s a rebel. He does everything he wants to do.”
Although we’re guessing that this was not an adventure her cat had intended to take. Criger says they will always check under and on top of the van from now on before leaving home.