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GREENSBORO — Champ the cat stared into the headlights bearing down on him at 55 mph. The scrawny orange-and-white stray had nowhere to go, no time to run.

But on this night, Champ found refuge in the space between those headlights, and the air-cooled cat went for a ride, skimming along inches above the pavement.

Champ lived to meow the tale.

Nine lives? Make that eight, pal. Definitely just eight left.

Champ’s story began Thursday evening when the cat decided to cross Bryan Boulevard and darted out onto the four-lane road.

The move put Champ on a collision course with Carrie Jones, an advertising coordinator with the News & Record’s TriadCareers section.

Jones was on her way to the gym, tooling along toward the New Garden Road exit in her nearly new, shiny silver 2008 Mazda 3. She spotted the cat, swerved and stomped on the brake pedal.

Too late.

Thump!

“I’m an animal lover,” Jones said. “I was so upset. I kept thinking: 'I just hit a cat. I just killed someone’s pet.’ I called my boyfriend, and I was just sobbing. ... I never wanted to drive again.”

After a restless night, Jones had to drive again Friday morning to take her younger brother, Beau, to school.

When they reached her car, they heard loud meowing.

“We couldn’t tell where it was coming from,” Jones said. “We thought there was a cat stuck up in a tree. We looked in the bushes. I looked back and saw I’d left the driver’s door open, and I thought, 'Maybe it jumped in the car.’”

They went back to the car, and Beau spotted the cat.

The lower grille on the Mazda 3 is made out of interlocking hexagons of black plastic.

On impact, the cat broke through and landed on a wide, flat spot inside the one-piece front bumper.

The plastic grille snapped back into place, and Champ spent the night trapped inside the bumper between the grille and the radiator.

“You know, it looks almost like a little cage in there,” Jones said. “It’s just the right size.”

She pried apart the plastic — which still has telltale bits of orange fur stuck to it — reopening the hole in the grille and releasing Champ.

Jones said the cat bounded out as if nothing had happened, acting unhurt and happy to be around people.

“I guess we’re calling him Lucky,” Jones said Friday afternoon.

The cat is still trying out names. Jones’ mother called him Matilda until they figured out he was a boy. Then he was Lucky. Then Champ.

He’s certainly lucky, if not Lucky.

“I don’t know if he was scared or knocked out,” Jones said, “because I checked my car (Thursday) night and didn’t hear anything or see anything wrong.”

Jones said she’s moving soon and won’t be able to keep Champ.

She’s not sure the cat would get along with her three dogs — Chihuahuas named Spunky, Scarlett and Mammie — although the cat devoured a bowl of their dog food.

“I’m not much of a cat person, but he’s a sweet cat,” Jones said. “He was licking my hand when I was trying to get him out, and he followed me around. He seems to love me, even though I almost flattened him.”

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com