A mysterious meow from her car introduces Baylor coach Nicki Collen to a new family member

Baylor coach Nicki Collen has a new furry family member — Sailor the cat.

She was driving home from an assistant’s birthday Saturday night when she heard meowing coming from her car. The coach at first thought she was hearing things since she didn’t have a cat. Yet she kept hearing it, so she looked around the car, but didn’t see anything.

When she got home, Collen had her son Connor come listen and he heard it too. So he took off the front driver’s side wheel and behind the fender cap was an adorable 4-week-old kitten.

“I tried to bring it back as I know who the mom is, but now he’s here with us,” she said. “The mothering instinct took over. I wanted to keep it alive since it’s mom wouldn’t take it. I won’t take it to a shelter.”

Collen said that her niece is a vet tech and she Facetimed her for help.

“So there I was Saturday night going to Walmart to buy kitten replacement milk to feed this cat,” she said laughing, “Then I stopped off at CVS to get some syringes to take care of it.”

Collen’s family has already fallen for the kitten, which she named Sailor as a nod to the old Baylor Bears logo.

“My daughter has been over to feed the cat, my son likes the kitten and my other daughter got a cat for Christmas,” she said.

The coach of seventh-ranked Baylor already has a pet in the house — a labradoodle named Scout. Now Scout has a new friend.

Collen said she had heard about the “cat distribution system” on social media where the “universe magically delivers a cat to a person when they are ready for one.”

My kids said that, “the cat chose me.”

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