Little Clark wandered alone in the Cracker Barrel parking lot.
Would someone come along? Would this stroll near a restaurant off the highway come to naught?
"Of course not," thought Little Clark, probably, with the confidence of a 6-week-old kitten.
Sure enough, help arrived.
We should pause here to note that "Most archaeologists believe that cats probably domesticated themselves more than 10,000 years," as the Smithsonian magazinereported.
Why hunt when you can train people to feed you?
"Cats, perhaps not surprisingly, largely domesticated themselves," Popular Science reported.
Felines bent us to their will, in other words, not the other way around.
Mt. Juliet Police Officer Casey Clark was part of the inevitable arc of history, then, when got out
of his patrol vehicle. Little Clark, as his fluffy new friend would come to be known, came running at a trot.
Before long, they arrived at Mt. Juliet Animal Care & Control. But not before Little Clark exerted a cat's predestined dominance.
Officer Clark did what police officers do when transporting individuals, and put the kitten in the back of his patrol car.
Little Clark did what cats do, and declined that arrangement.
The kitten squeezed through the partition window of the patrol vehicle and climbed onto the officer's shoulders for the rest of the trip.
Mt. Juliet Animal Care & Control would later christen the kitten after his designated human.
"I mean, obviously," thought Little Clark, probably.
We should pause again to note that things don't always end well for stray animals.
Nationally, close to 600,000 animals were euthanized in shelters in 2025, a year-over-yera drop of nearly 7% for dogs and 2% for cats, according to the ASPCA.
In Tennessee, 70% of shelter deaths in 2020 were cats, The Tennessean previously reported.
Little Clark appears headed for a happier ending.
He will spend the next few weeks getting the care necessary to build up his immunity and weight with another pound needed before he can be neutered and ready for adoption. He is not available for the public to see at this time, but is in good overall health, playful and "a hoot," Mt. Juliet Animal Control Officer Kris Swartzentrover said.
It's not known how Little Clark got to the Cracker Barrel parking lot. He is not feral and quite comfortable around humans, which makes it possible he got loose or was dumped, Swartzentrover said.
Officer Clark wants his tiny new friend to find a great home with a loving family, city spokesman Justin Beasley said.
The internet, as usual, has thoughts. An Aug. 17 post from the Mount Juliet Police Department about the matter has attracted more than 1,200 comments, many along the lines of what Linda Young wrote: "Officer Clark, this kitten clearly chose you and kittens are never wrong."
"Officer Clark, that kitten picked you," Jennah Fish wrote.
"Sir please go back and pick up your kitten," wrote Hannah Vickers.
A cursory check found approximately zero people disagreeing.
"If dogs can be your K-9, the kitten can certainly be your F-9," wrote Lala Davis, clearly onto something new in the cop-buddy genre.
"If Clark doesn't adopt Clark after Clark clearly adopted Clark, I'm gonna be mad," wrote Alexandra Kennedy Walworth.
Who could argue with that logic?
The officer, we're told, is said to be considering making things official with the kitten he rescued.
"I mean, obviously," thought Little Clark once again, probably.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Curiosity saves the cat. Kitten encounters Mt. Juliet police, quickly takes control
