Malik Allen pulled his cherry red Kia into a parking spot on the fifth floor of the downtown Dallas parking garage. He stepped out, headed to a pile of work and a catered lunch from Maggiano’s Little Italy at Baker Botts law firm.
“Meow.”
He stopped, glanced around the fifth floor of the garage at Trammell Crow Center, spied nothing notable and began walking away. He heard the faint noise again. He still didn’t see anything. The soft meow was no engine purr but a cat trapped somewhere inside his car.
After 20 minutes, Allen, an associate at Baker Botts, realized he needed data, a team and more tools for Operation Rescue Kitty.
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“I tried to lure her out with snacks before heading to my office to research and get help,” Allen said.
The rescue mission
During his lunch meeting, Allen recruited Baker Botts associates Victoria Miller and Shelby Saxon for his mission to coax the kitten from the Kia.
They came armed with the essentials: leftover meatballs from Maggiano’s, a small cup of alfredo sauce, warm milk from the cappuccino machine and ChatGPT.
Saxon used ChatGPT to help figure out what part of the car the cat might be in and for ideas on how to safely lure it out. Given what they knew so far, the cat was likely huddled in the engine bay, one of the wheel wells, the underbelly panels or behind the bumper.
The rescue team spent almost half an hour trying to pinpoint the location of the kitten. But when the meows stopped, they feared the worst. Miller began meowing. Saxon joined in. Human meows filled the garage before a tentative kitten meow joined the chorus.
The trio determined the kitten was stuck in the plastic undercarriage of the Kia. Saxon and Miller bounced up and down, clinging to each other in relief.
Jesse Castillo, a Trammell Crow Center building tech, arrived at the scene and lent them a heavy duty flashlight that shone much brighter than the flashlights on their phones. They spotted tufts of fur.
Saxon hastily grabbed the meatballs and scattered them under the car and in the opening closest to the kitten. She set the cup of milk underneath the car.
The kitten stayed put. Castillo rushed off to find tools to remove the undercarriage.
ChatGPT said they should use a jack to safely maneuver underneath the car but there wasn’t enough room between Allen’s car and the one next to it to use the jack. Moving the car might jeopardize the cat, so the team had to make due.
Castillo couldn’t find his ratchet wrench which would have easily removed enough screws to free the cat. All he could find was a Phillips screwdriver. It would get the job done but with a lot more effort.
Allen watched as Saxon took his car apart with a screwdriver as Miller manned the flashlight and played kitten noises on Spotify.
Saxon reached blindly for the cat, without knowing if it would respond aggressively with scratching and biting. Sweat covered Saxon; her new striped button down restricted her movement. Her hand brushed up against soft fur a few times.
Suddenly Saxon pulled out her hand clutching an orange, brown, white furball. A small kitten blinked up at her onlookers.
“It completely derailed our day,” Miller said in an email. “But honestly, it was worth every minute.”
Victoria Miller, Shelby Saxon and Malik Allen pose with Carrie the kitten after rescuing her from Allen’s car.
Victoria Miller
A new life
Allen, Miller and Saxon paraded the kitten around to all the whole office. But the trio of rescuers now had new cat goals: a name, a wellness check and finding the kitten a home.
After much discussion they decided to name her Carrie because Allen carried her across town from his home in south Oak Cliff in the undercarriage of his car.
Plopped in a box that partner Charles Strecker had cleared out for her, Carrie curiously looked up at the people surrounding her. She curled her small body into the corner of the box.
Carrie at Baker Botts with a downtown view. Photo from Shelby Saxon
Shelby Saxon
Carrie received her first round of vaccines and flea medicine at Metro Paws Animal Hospital that afternoon. The vet confirmed that she had no viruses or diseases. In fact, she was doing pretty good despite the traumatic day she’d had.
The rescue team set Carrie up in an office with all the accommodations a kitty could have, food, a towel and a downtown view.
Partner Susan Kennedy had always liked cats but her husband, Bill, is allergic to them. Kennedy broached the idea with her husband and he said yes. After another person’s plans to adopt Carrie fell through, Kennedy wondered if it was fate.
Immediately upon entering her new home, Carrie found a new hiding place. Kennedy’s son, William, went to see the kitten and couldn’t find her in the closed bathroom. The family frantically searched the house for the 1.5 lb ball of fluff.
While looking once more in the bathroom, Kennedy’s husband heard a faint meow coming from the cabinet. Carrie managed to find a hole under the corner of a cabinet that was just big enough for her to wiggle into. She stuck her paw out to indicate exactly how she got into the cabinet.
Susan Kennedy with her kitten Carrie at her home in Dallas on Oct. 11, 2025. Carrie the kitten was rescued from a car where she was trapped.
Anja Schlein / Special Contributor
“We didn’t know there was a hole underneath the cabinet!” Kennedy said.
Carrie’s on a 3-3-3 schedule that Kennedy found on the Humane Society of Dallas County website. Three days in one room (the master bathroom), 3 weeks to explore the house, and then three months until she should be fully acclimated. According to Kennedy, the plan is supposed to help kittens decompress in a new environment.
She’s also growing fast. In less than two weeks, Carrie’s weight has increased by 50%.
The Kennedy’s golden doodle, Cosmo, is anxious to meet his new companion. He’s never been around a cat before, but Kennedy is optimistic they’ll get along.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there and talk to a vet,” Kennedy said.
So far Kennedy’s husband has been diligently washing his hands and hasn’t had any issues with the feline addition to the household.