There are Michael Schmidtalways gems to find at the Indy 500, whether it's an inspiring story of a new driver or people-watching in the legions of fans that attend the race.
But a pair of sisters went viral for finding a kitten during their time at the Indy 500 over Memorial Day Weekend. They chronicled the adventure in a TikTok video, which now has more than 621,000 views since it was published in June.
In a video for The Dodo that was published on Thursday, one of the sisters, Juliana, explained how the duo was attending the famed race for a birthday. They came across the tiny animal, who was in the middle of the road dodging cars and then ran to hide in a tire well.
"He was so dirty and just so frightened," she said.
The girls eventually caught the kitten and, as they said in the TikTok video, called local animal shelters and animal control, but couldn't get in touch with anyone.
They decided to keep the cat for themselves. They bundled him in a blanket and drove four and a half hours back home.
"As soon as I grabbed that cat, I was like, 'This is my cat now,'" Juliana said. "The adrenaline was pumping so hard."
The sisters named the new kitten Moto to fit in with his family of five other cats, who all have "M" names. They introduced him to his new family one cat at a time.
"He was never scared of my cats," Juliana said. "He immediately wanted to play with them and show them that he's the boss now."
His siblings, Masuka, Malaa, Mishka, Mochi and Marvin, were a little more hesitant, but eventually he was welcomed with love and baths.
Juliana said that Moto is "so goofy" and is "perfectly healthy," which she said was remarkable given the circumstances of how they found him.
"We got to watch him go from very scared to now just running this house," she said.
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