Man rescues kitten found glued to road

SALEM, Ore. — An Oregon driver made a disturbing discovery. He says he found a kitten found glued to the middle of a very busy intersection.

"This was 7 in the morning, so there's a lot of cars coming down here, and just the fact she wasn't hit was amazing," Chuck Hawley told KPTV.

Hawley was driving to work when he saw something in the middle of the road. At first, he couldn't tell what it was and he saw several cars pass right over it. His heart sank when he realized it was alive, a little kitten, frightened and cold.

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"When I went to pick her up, her feet were stuck to the road, and I'm like 'Uh-oh.' So I start to pull her feet up and it was like a rubber cement, so she was glued to the road," said Hawley. He says it was on all four paws, under her neck and covering her tail. "We were hoping that she had just walked through glue, but it was pretty apparent that somebody had glued -- had soaked her feet in glue and kind of rubbed it into the pads of her feet. I think the way she was sitting someone actually went out and put her there, because there were no glue foot prints around, it was just a glob of glue just under her," said Hawley.

He took the 5-week-old kitten to the Silver Creek Animal Clinic, where veterinarians had to use mineral oil to get the glue out. They also found some puncture wounds on her neck, but aren't sure what caused them.

Dr. Jenny Bate has never seen anything like this before. "I mean, what can you think when something like that happens? I mean, your first reaction is disgust, and then thinking what could cause a person to do something like that." There's no doubt in her mind either this was no accident. "It had to happen intentionally. I mean somebody put that glue there, I don't know how or why or anything, but yeah, I mean, somebody did that."

There's no way to know how long the kitten was left in the road, and it's incredible that she wasn't run over. But now that she's been rescued, there's a happy ending to this story. She's going home permanently with Hawley.

"The funny thing is we were just talking about getting a cat a couple of nights ago. Seems like there's easier ways for the cat to find us, but if that's how we're doing it, OK, I guess that's how we'll do it!" said Hawley. Her new name? Of course it's only fitting, given what she's been through. "My wife named her Sticky!"

Sticky is expected to make a full recovery. Hawley is also filing a report with the Marion County Sheriff's Office and hopes there are cameras in the area that might have caught the person responsible.

CNN/KPTV