It took two cat lovers, a team of car dealership techs and a Dallas Fire-Rescue crew, but Dallas the kitten is free at last.

The kitten was rescued Wednesday from the car engine of a Seattle couple road-tripping back home after a wedding in Dallas.

Andrew Steelsmith and his wife, Christine, were merging onto Interstate 635 when they first heard howling from the engine of their Honda Accord.

"We accelerated up to freeway speed, and we heard this howling and screaming," Steelsmith said in an interview Friday. "The cat was right on the other side of the AC vent. It sounded like it was coming out of the speakers, really loud."

Steelsmith immediately pulled off onto a median near the Dallas North Tollway and quickly realized there was a kitten stuck in the engine compartment. He said they thought the cat was "burning alive." The couple took videos of the whole experience.

They called Dallas Fire-Rescue to help free the kitten. After several tries and no luck, the fire crew settled on an alternative plan. The firetrucks escorted the Steelsmiths to the Clay Cooley Chevrolet Galleria on the LBJ Freeway for backup.

At the car dealership, service techs had to take off the front left wheel, the wheel-well guard and the engine guard, and the kitten was finally freed about 90 minutes later. The crew at the dealership told the Steelsmiths that they had seen cats inside car engines, but never alive.

Steelsmith, who said both he and his wife have owned cats, decided to keep the kitten because of its injuries — a broken tail, an injured leg and some cuts.

"We knew it wouldn't be adopted easily," he said. "This cat went through a lot to get into our car, so we couldn't just drop it off at a shelter."

Steelsmith posted an eight-minute video of the whole event on Reddit, which drew nearly 100 comments from cat lovers who offered to send money for litter, food and catnip. Some commenters said they adopted their cats in a similar way, naming them names like "Freeway."

Dallas Chevy (or DC) also has a Facebook page, on which the Steelsmiths post updates on the kitten's condition.

Steelsmith created a GoFundMe page to help foot veterinarian bills for Dallas, who also has worms.

Dallas is doing well so far, he said. They created a sling for the kitten's broken tail by clipping it to a harness.

"It's like a little tail backpack," Steelsmith said.

After some research, the Steelsmiths concluded that Dallas is a Blue Russian cat, a breed known for its loyal temperament and soft, velvety coat.

"We definitely got lucky with the type of cat," he said. "And our 6-year-old pug-beagle mix would love to have a kitten."

The rescue was not the only one of its kind this week in Dallas. On Wednesday, a kitten was rescued from a car engine in the parking lot of an East Dallas Whole Foods.

Bruce Levy, a resident of the area who witnessed the rescue, said the car owner named the cat "Smokey" in honor of the Dallas Fire-Rescue team who helped save it.