A man was waiting at the drive-through window at a Hardee’s restaurant in Kentucky when he noticed an employee giving him some weird looks. He quickly realized there were loud meows coming through the speaker at the drive-through window — and they were coming from somewhere under his car.

He pulled over and peeked under his car, and his suspicions were confirmed: There was a kitten stuck underneath his car, and it was clear she had no way of getting out on her own.

Luckily, there was an auto shop, Midas of Frankfort, right next door to the restaurant, and so the manager went over to see if any of the mechanics could help out. They immediately agreed to help, and had the car brought over to their shop so they could get to work. Everyone was incredibly worried about the tiny kitten, and hoped they could free her from the car as quickly as possible.

“She tried to crawl through a hole in the rear subframe and got lodged after realizing she couldn’t retreat backwards,” D. Scott Bourne, owner and managing director of the Midas of Frankfort, told The Dodo.

At that point, the kitten had already been stuck for several hours, and was clearly very confused and scared. As the mechanics worked to take apart the car and free her, they talked to her and pet her gently, hoping to help her understand that they were there to help her.

“She was very docile as she was very tired and dehydrated,” Bourne said. “It was 90-plus degrees outside, and hard telling how hot it was under the vehicle.”

Finally, after over an hour of work and dismantling parts of the car, the mechanics were able to pull the kitten free, and everyone was overjoyed to see that she appeared to be mostly OK. The man who owned the car was so grateful to the mechanics for helping out and offered to pay them, but they refused. All they had wanted was to help the kitten, and knowing she was safe was payment enough.

The kitten, later named Marigold, was cared for by her rescuers overnight and then taken straight to the vet first thing in the morning. The vet determined that she was around 9 weeks old, and aside from ear mites and some minor cuts and scrapes, she was in great health. Marigold had somehow survived her ordeal unharmed, thanks to the love and determination of her rescuers.

Marigold has now been adopted by some friends of her rescuers and is settling in wonderfully to her new home. No one has any idea exactly where she came from or how she ended up stuck under the car, but somehow she found her way to where she was supposed to be, and is so happy to have a new family who loves her.