Stray kitten hitches 15-mile ride inside the wheel well of truck in Oregon

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A search and rescue team in Oregon has a new mascot: a kitten who hitched a ride inside the wheel well of one of their trucks last month.

Lindsey Lohr and Greg Wood, who are volunteers for the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue team, found the tiny feline after hearing a faint meow on Aug. 12.

"I've been volunteering with the county for 20 years, and this is the first time this has happened," Wood told Nexstar's KOIN.

During a training exercise, a K-9 alerted deputies to the search and rescue truck. Initially, they suspected that a rodent was stuck inside.

A fleet technician was asked to inspect the vehicle, but the inspection was delayed due to a call. Volunteers were dispatched on a search and rescue mission at the Vista House in the Gorge, located more than a dozen miles away, according to Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.

The kitten remained trapped as "the truck traveled over 10 miles at freeway speeds and another 5 miles up the winding road to the call location," the sheriff's office said in a Facebook post.

While most of the volunteers ventured out into the field, authorities said two stayed behind to disassemble the wheel well. That's when they found the little black kitten.

“It wasn’t until we climbed up into the engine basically with the flashlight that we could even tell that she was down here,” Lohr said.

"We see just this tiny head pop up. It was like, 'meow,'" Wood added.

The kitten was later named after the place she was discovered: Vista.

It's unclear how Vista ended up in the wheel well, but she now has a brand new home with one of the deputies. She also has a clean bill of health after fighting off fleas and a cold.