It was supposed to be an ordinary night.
After finishing her shift, Aubree Johnson stepped out into a dark, nearly empty parking lot in Indiana, ready to head home. The air was bitterly cold, and the lot was quiet — until a small flicker of movement caught her eye.
Beneath a truck parked beside her car, something tiny and striped was weaving in and out of the shadows.
“When I got to my car, I saw her under the truck next to me, rubbing against it,” Johnson told The Dodo.
It was a tabby kitten.
Johnson’s heart sank. She had never seen a cat in that parking lot before — and certainly not on a freezing winter night. The temperature was dropping fast. There was no way she could just drive away.
But the kitten wasn’t immediately convinced.
When Johnson approached, the little cat darted under her car. Every time Johnson tried to coax her out, she’d come close — then retreat to safety again.
Still, Johnson refused to give up.
“I told myself I wasn’t leaving without her,” she said.
For nearly 15 minutes, the kitten played a timid game of trust. Step forward. Step back. Inch closer. Hide again.
Then something changed.
Slowly, the kitten began rubbing against Johnson’s leg. She allowed gentle pets. The fear in her tiny body softened into cautious affection.
Johnson knew she wanted to bring her home — but without a carrier, she wasn’t sure how.
Then she had an idea.
“It was really cold, so I opened my car door,” Johnson said. “She thankfully jumped in with me.”
Just like that, the decision was made.
The kitten — later named Lottie — curled up inside the warm car as if she’d been waiting for this exact moment. Johnson snapped a photo of her perched on the dashboard and posted it to local Facebook groups, hoping someone might be searching for her.
She waited.
Thirty minutes passed.
No calls. No messages. No one came running.
“No one was looking for her,” Johnson said.
With a heavy but hopeful heart, Johnson drove Lottie home.
The next morning, she took her to the vet. The verdict: healthy, no microchip, no signs anyone had claimed her before. It became painfully clear that Lottie may never have had a family at all.
Johnson made a quiet promise that day.
“I kept her!” she said.
At first, Lottie was startled by everything in her new world — toys, unfamiliar sounds, wide open rooms. But day by day, love replaced fear.
Now, just a month later, she’s blossomed into a confident, chatty little explorer.
“She loves to explore, lay on me and make biscuits, eat, play — and she’s super vocal!” Johnson said.
Lottie even formed an unlikely friendship with Johnson’s 1½-year-old golden retriever, who patiently allows her to bat and pounce at his fluffy tail — one of her favorite games.
Johnson hadn’t planned on adopting a kitten that night.
But as Lottie curls into her arms, purring with complete trust, Johnson knows it was meant to be.
“People say she was lucky that I found her,” she said. “But I’m truly the lucky one.”
On the coldest night, a tiny kitten jumped into a stranger’s car.
And somehow, she knew she was finally home.
