KEY POINTS:
There's only one name for a tiny kitten rescued from under the tyres of a four-tonne truck on a busy Auckland motorway - Lucky.
She was plucked from the fast lane of the Southern Motorway on Wednesday.
Truck driver Paul Piritaie was among the vehicles held up when police set up traffic blocks after receiving reports that a grey and white kitten was cowering against the median barrier.
"The cop just like stopped us and I was going 'Come on man, I've got work to do'," he said.
"All I saw was the cat go 'whoosh' underneath the truck and I thought thought I'd killed it.
"This guy behind us said: 'It's crawled between your tyres'.
"I stopped and put my hand in there but it took a swipe at me."
Mr Piritaie, 40, was so smitten with the kitten he decided to keep her and call her Lucky.
Motorways Constable Shane Campbell said Mr Piritaie's truck stopped just in time.
"The kitten actually crawled in between the tyres.
"If he'd driven one more inch the cat would have been, basically, splattered."
She wasn't just elusive at the initial rescue.
When the Herald first visited Lucky on Wednesday, the reluctant kitten could not be found inside Mr Piritaie's small Toyota Corolla.
She popped out many hours later from behind the car's dashboard area.
Mr Campbell said it was rewarding to save an animal because many were not so lucky on the motorways.
Officers were called to reports of animals on motorways - usually dogs - at least once a week, but most were gone before police arrived, he said.
