It was a sweltering afternoon in Pembroke Pines, Florida, last week when police sergeant Mike Matthis stopped by a local restaurant for lunch. Shortly after parking his police cruiser, he spotted a strange movement coming from within a neighboring vehicle.
“[H]e noticed a cat paw suddenly swat out from inside a nearby car’s bumper,” Pembroke Pines Police Department (PPPD) wrote on Facebook.
Matthis crouched down to investigate the car’s front grille and soon found a fluffy baby staring back at him. The discovery shocked him.
“A kitten had somehow wedged themself behind the grating and was trapped inside,” PPPD wrote.
The concerned first responder had no idea how long the kitten had been hiding in the car’s bumper, but he knew that time was already running out as the hot temperature rose. He had to act quickly to save the kitten — but he couldn’t get to work without the car owner’s permission.
That’s when he decided to search the complex.
It didn’t take long for the sergeant to find exactly who he was looking for and convince them of his plan.
“Sergeant Matthis was able to locate the car’s owner and, with their permission, cut open their bumper to free the cat,” PPPD wrote.
Moments later, Matthis cradled the tiny kitten, initially named Bumper, safely in his hands. Bumper was dirty and grumpy from the ordeal, but he was grateful to be freed.
Matthis took Bumper home, where he planned on fostering the kitten until a forever family showed up. He bathed the kitten and created a cozy space for him to rest.
It took less than a day for Matthis to realize that Bumper had already found his forever home.
“UPDATE: Foster failure!” PPPD wrote in a comment. “Sergeant Matthis is keeping ‘Bumper’ (now renamed Loki).”
It’s been a few days since Loki joined the Matthis family, and the sweet boy couldn’t be happier. His rescuer-turned-dad is already smitten with Loki, and he knows their bond will only grow stronger as time passes.
Stopping for lunch the other day might have seemed like a mundane task, but because of Matthis’ vigilance, his and Loki’s lives are now forever changed.
