Man Opens Plastic Wrap At Home Improvement Store — And Someone Tiny Falls Out - The Dodo

Jun 27, 2025

A few months ago, Shelby Elko went out to buy some concrete from Menards, a home improvement retailer. While she was in the outdoor section of the store, she heard something unexpected: meowing.

“[W]e were standing there doing the math on how much concrete we needed and heard a faint meow,” Elko wrote in a TikTok.

Elko quickly realized the sound was coming from the inside of a shrink-wrapped stack of lava rocks. She didn’t understand how that was possible — then she saw movement coming from inside the plastic.

“I saw something move, and I was like, ‘We just need to check that,’” Elko said in a video for The Dodo.

Elko’s husband felt around for the kitten and tore open the plastic with his hands. To their surprise, a tiny kitten came tumbling down and landed on a pile of bags. Thankfully, the fall wasn’t too hard and the kitten was totally fine.

“I picked him up, put him in my arm, and we were looking through that whole pallet and did not find any other kittens or mama cat,” Elko said.

Elko had no idea how the kitten ended up stuck inside the plastic. She was just glad that he’d survived. Given his circumstances, he was doing surprisingly well. Elko contacted her local humane society about the kitten, who told her that he couldn’t have been more than 5 days old.

Given how tiny the kitten was, Elko focused on bottle-feeding him milk and keeping him nice and warm. She decided to give him the temporary nickname Oscar until she settles on a name she’s happier with.

“He’s a chunker, he loves to eat,” Elko said in a TikTok. “He’s so sweet and just so precious.”

The next day, Elko got a call saying that a mama cat and her kittens had been found at the same Menards. At first, Elko assumed the other cats must have been Oscar’s family. But when she brought Oscar to the home where the mama and her babies were being fostered, it was clear he was much younger than them and probably wasn’t part of their litter.

Even though Oscar likely isn’t related to the other cats rescued from Menards, Elko and the foster agreed it would be good for him to stay with the other kittens until he gets bigger. According to his foster mom, he’s already thriving.

“He is very small, but he’s mighty,” Elko said. “She says that he drinks so much, he eats so much, and that he’s getting really strong, too."

In late July, Elko plans to bring Oscar back home with her. Until then, she’ll be counting down the days until they can reunite.

“I am so happy that he’s alive, healthy, and he’s growing,” Elko said. “We love him so much already.”