A bobcat somehow got stuck in a car grille in Arizona when driver A.J. Michaels was on his way to a restaurant.
The incident took place on Friday night near Scottsdale and Indian Bend roads in Arizona, according to CBS 5 Action.
Michaels confirmed that after he hit "an animal" he kept driving and didn't notice anything suspicious until walking around his vehicle to check for damage once he reached the restaurant. When he looked at his Mazda sedan he realized a bobcat was stuck inside the plastic grille.
"I felt very badly it had been hit," Michaels said according to CBS 5 Action. "I thought I killed it."
The 7-pound animal had to be sedated by Goffrey Hossack of the Arizona Game and Fish Department in order to calm it down during the rescue process. A section of the grille was cut into in order to remove the wild animal safely.
Hossack said he was amazed at the bobcat's condition considering what happened.
"I would say his condition is amazing," he said, according to CBS 5 Action News. "It's unheard of that an animal this small is going get hit by a vehicle and survive."
Hossack then transported the bobcat to the Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center. A vet at the facility examined the wild bobcat and determined that he didn't suffer any "breaks, fractures or external injuries," according to WFTV Channel 9.
Eventually the bobcat will be released back into the wild, according to the Associated Press.
Bobcats can leap as high as 12-feet and are a lot stronger than normal domestic cats. This could help explain how the animals was able to survive the incident.
The story is similar to one that took place in 2013 when an owl got caught in a truck grille. Though the animal was hit, it somehow managed to remain in the grille alive as the drive drove for more than an hour in central Florida at speeds of 60 mph.
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