Whatever higher power exists, I’m not sure of. I honestly try not to think about it too much. The weight of the implications is crushing. But, regardless of what or who you believe in, we can all agree that life is full of odd coincidences. This is a true story that transpired in June of 2025, and when I think of it, it still gives me chills because of how much it felt like some sort of strange cosmic alignment.
These days, I’m heading to downtown Nashville every Thursday night to broadcast the infamous Tennessee Titans podcast, Football & Other F Words, for 104.5 The Zone’s digital channels. It’s a real hoot. To pay the bills, I’m still logging my eight hours a day working for the man. But, I’m not client-facing, so it’s not unusual at all for me to go an entire day without speaking. That’s not good on podcast nights. I try to make noises throughout the day to keep my voice warmed up, but the fact of the matter is sometimes I need a boost. So, I’ll stop by the new Starbucks by the Target in Donelson on my way downtown and get a hot cup of tea to help prime my throat for talking.
One early June Thursday, I stopped for my London Fog. The barista greeted me, seeming a little panicked. She asked, “you wouldn’t happen to be a cat person, would you?” I said I was. She continued, “there happens to be a little kitten that could use some help over in the Target parking lot.” She pointed towards a car that was setting back away from the larger bunch of parked cars. I could see a little silhouette nuzzled up next to the front passenger side wheel. As I drove off, I paused. I wanted to help, but I would’ve missed that episode of the podcast. I wasn’t aware of emergency protocols, or if this would even count as an emergency. I knew I could call my cohost Zach and he would’ve understood, but I wasn’t so sure about the station. I decided I would have to pass on this one and trust that the good will of humanity would prevail.
It was a terrible decision. I couldn’t stop thinking about the poor kitten. I made it halfway to Nashville before I asked myself, “what were you thinking, Stoney? You don’t even believe in the good will of humanity.” I was distracted for the entirety of the show. I’m not sure if it came across that night on the airwaves, but my thoughts were elsewhere. I couldn’t wait for the show to end. I thought that I’d call Aura on the way home and make sure she was cool with me potentially bringing home a cat. Then, I’d stop at Target and look for the kitten. So, that’s what I did. I drove slowly around that Target parking lot, lap after lap. I’m surprised no one called the cops on me. But, there was no sign of the kitten. I felt terrible.
I got home and told Aura what had happened, and I was so incredibly disappointed in myself. I just sat there staring at the wall. I couldn’t believe that it was gut check time and I didn’t rise to the occasion. I guess I was afraid of losing my spot at the station…getting in some sort of trouble…setting a precedent that the show wasn’t important to me…I don’t know. It was more or less pure panic. I understood that I was equipped to help that poor animal, and I just didn’t do it because this podcast was more important to me at that moment. It’s hard just to type that out – to stomach what my decision might’ve meant for the kitten. I couldn’t do any writing that night. I tried reading to take my mind off of things. Nothing worked. I felt guilty. I was lying in bed bargaining with no one in particular, saying “I do want to help…I do, I swear!”
I managed to get some sleep that night. In a coincidental turn of events, I realized the next morning that I had forgotten to stop and get coffee from the grocery store on the way home from the show the night before. I’m the type of basic bitch that can’t function without his coffee. “Great,” I thought. “Now I have to run out before work.” We live not two miles down the road from the Providence shopping center here in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. There’s a Starbucks there, but like any Mount Juliet native knows, the Providence traffic sucks. I had a little bit of time before I was due to clock in, so I thought I’d dodge the traffic and head to Hermitage to that Starbucks instead. It’s certainly longer mileagewise, but I’d take the scenic drive through the backroads over stuffy traffic any day.
I got my coffee and as I approached the traffic light at Old Hickory Boulevard and Juarez Drive, I noticed a little white blur in the intersection. My gut sank. It was a kitten…and it was panicking…running back and forth between the lanes attempting to dodge the traffic that wasn’t slowing down. To be fair, she was tiny and I wasn’t sure people could even see her. I didn’t want to see a kitten run over that morning. Thankfully, a man turning left off of Old Hickory Boulevard pulled up next to her. She immediately ran under his wheel for shelter. He tried to get out and get her, but she was so scared that she was doing everything in her power to stay hunkered down behind that wheel. Traffic still wasn’t stopping.
At that point, I thought “this is fucking ridiculous.” I know people, in general, are so preoccupied with their own shit that they very seldom pay attention to the world around them anymore. Missing a tiny kitten in the road is one thing, but now there’s a man pulled over, out of his car, crouched down by his wheel in the middle of the road, and still…no one’s stopping. It made my blood boil, and that’s when I decided to act. I flipped on my hazards at the traffic light, got out of my car, and I started walking into Old Hickory Boulevard waving my arms and just hoping that people would look up from their phones in enough time to see me and stop. A guy on the other side of the intersection, turning onto Old Hickory from Juarez, had the same idea. He pulled his van out into the traffic, and at that point, we had the intersection secure.
I approached the man in the middle of the street. Thankfully, he had secured the kitten. I asked, “ya got her?” He replied, “yes…I don’t know what to do with her.” Maybe it was my guilt from the night before bubbling up inside me and erupting from my throat, but without hesitation, I said “I’ll take her.” She was small enough to fit in the palm of my hand. I nuzzled her up next to my chest in part to comfort her, but I also didn’t want her to struggle free and jump right back down into the road. As I left the scene, the man who pulled his van into the road cupped his hands over his mouth and yelled “thank you!” I got her in the car and she scrambled beneath the seats. I looked down and realized that I had her blood on my hands.
I called our vet at Affordable Veterinary Care in Mount Juliet. Those folks are fantastic. I explained the situation. They told me they didn’t have any availability that morning, but I could bring the kitten by and they’d triage her to make sure she was stable. So, that’s what I did. I ran by the house, got our other cat Bucky’s crate, threw the kitten in it and away we went. They could tell she was still in shock, but they said she was stable. Her little jaw was swollen. That was the reason for the blood on my hands, but thankfully, there were no other lacerations on her body. They said she had a thousand-yard gaze. I’ve had five concussions myself, so I know good and damn well what that looks like. It broke my heart to hear the vet say that the injuries were consistent with being thrown from a moving vehicle, and they thought she might’ve been clipped by one.
My instructions were clear. Get her (oh, and we confirmed she was a ‘her,’ by the way) to a quiet room, keep her warm, let her get some rest, and try to get her to eat. I brought her home, put her in our guest bathroom, and proceeded to watch over her. I ran to the pet store to get some kitten food, and I set it out for her, but she wouldn’t eat. Hours passed, but I couldn’t get her to eat…she barely moved. By 5PM, I began to panic a bit. She was still curled up in a tight ball in the corner of the crate, sleeping…lethargic…borderline lifeless. So, I called my vet back and they told me that I’d have to contact an emergency facility. There wasn’t much they could do for her at that point. The emergency facility rattled me after I filled them in on the situation by saying, “you should be prepared to decide how much you’re willing to spend to help this animal.”
Fuck.
I called my wife and told her I didn’t know what to do. I certainly didn’t want the poor kitten to suffer. But, I wasn’t an adequate judge of when to panic about these sorts of things. I’m just a writer! Thankfully, Aura has a coworker who is a rock star of a cat mom. She suggested we try a kitten milk replacer. Aura stopped by the pet store, picked some up, and brought it home. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a being’s face light up the way that kitten’s did when she realized what was coming out of the tip of that bottle. Turns out, she was only four or five weeks old…she was nowhere near ready for solid foods. She was still on milk. She sucked the milk replacer down as quickly as we fed it to her. She was biting down on the bottle in a way that made me think, “surely her jaw is not broken.” And, while she wasn’t playful, she began to loosen up a bit. There was no telling when the last time she actually ate was. The can said she was supposed to get it every couple of hours or so. That night, Aura and I set our alarms for every two hours. We’d wake up. We’d feed the kitten. We’d try to get her to the next morning so the vet could examine her.
After a virtually sleepless night, we made it to the vet. The tech came in and said, “oh wow, we’re still here,” adding that she wasn’t sure the kitten would make it through the night. “Something bad definitely happened to this kitten.” After a thorough exam and multiple tests, it was ruled that the kitten “had a chance.” No signs of parasites. No signs of any broken bones. Concussion symptoms were a little clearer. The conversation shifted to, “now you just have to make sure she uses the litter box – it’s possible she does have some internal injuries.” When we arrived at the vet’s office, our appointment was made under “found kitten.” Before we left, I told the vet to update her name to “Pepper.” Aura named her after the Marvel character, Pepper Potts…perhaps more appropriately known for her superhero name, Rescue. There was no way we were going to be able to go through all of that with her and not keep her.
We got her back home. She was clearly beginning to trust us, and we even caught her playing with a little stuffed carrot we gave her when she thought we weren’t watching. Poop watch began as we nervously checked on her regularly. Later that night, lo and behold, that kitten had the smelliest shit I may have ever smelled in my life. If she was half as relieved as I was, I know that felt good. At that point, we had endured quite the traumatic 24 hours, but the sun was beginning to shine through the clouds. Now, I’m sitting here writing this nearly three months later, and she’s fully integrated with Bucky. She annoys the hell out of him, but she’s become a part of our family, happy and healthy.
I don’t know for sure that Pepper is the same kitten from that Target parking lot. It’s possible. I found her just a couple miles up the road the morning after initially seeing that kitten. But, there’s no way to know for sure. Really, it doesn’t matter. They say that you don’t find the cat…the cat finds you. Pepper found us. Still, I can’t help but think it’s an awfully strange coincidence…dare I say, an astronomical coincidence…that I felt so guilty that night that I pleaded with the universe to give me an opportunity to help and it obliged.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, second on Football & Other F Words, analyst for Stacking The Inbox, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, the NFL Draft, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.
Elsewhere on the SoBros Network: Check out Stacking The Inbox for premium coverage of the Tennessee Titans and NFL Draft. Subscribe to Nashville Movie Dispatch for all of our movie content. We get weird on Phone It In, the history podcast that explores legendary tales, important historical figures, and events.
