Kitten Survives 85-Mile Road Trip Under Van's Hood (need help locating home)

Catster ^ | 3/23/12 | Jane Kelly

[EBH]

An 8-month-old cat is lucky she didn't leave her heart -- or anything else, for that matter -- in San Francisco.

When a Michigan man stopped for gas in Santa Cruz, California, he heard a strange noise emanating from his van's engine compartment.

It wasn't the death rattle of an exhausted motor. Nor was it the whining of loose belts or the clackety-clack of a failing CV joint. Nope … it was a desperate mew for help.

The man opened the hood, and found a terrified brown tabby. He asked a gas station attendant to call whoever takes care of stray animals, and shortly thereafter, the kitten -- who, miraculously, survived her unplanned voyage without injury -- was in the care of the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter.

When the man explained that he'd been driving nonstop since Mill Valley, a town in Marin County just north of San Francisco, the story took an interesting turn.

It seems the cat had stowed away in the van's engine compartment while the man took a sleep break in a McDonald's parking lot, and didn't get out before the next leg of the road trip began.

It's pretty clear that the cat has a home: she was found wearing a blue studded collar with a tiny blue bell. But since she doesn't have tags or a microchip, animal control authorities were at a loss as to how to locate her caretaker.

Animal shelter workers called the Marin Humane Society and told the story of the feline stowaway. They're hoping to get a call from a person missing a tabby kitten with a blue collar.

"She's a really sweet cat. Hopefully someone in Marin can come get her," said Santa Cruz Animal Shelter spokesman Todd Stousy. "It was a long ride."

A video of the kitten shows the truth of her outgoing and friendly disposition. She can be seen rubbing and climbing all over Animal Control Officer George DeLeon: ...

Maybe all this publicity will help reunite cat and caretaker. After the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported the story on Wednesday, it was picked up by a Bay Area TV station, National Public Radio, and the Associated Press.Stousy asks anyone with information about the cat to call the Santa Cruz Animal Shelter at 831-454-7200.

And the moral of the story is: If you stop your vehicle and leave it parked for any length of time, please bang on the hood to make sure you don't have an extra passenger. Most of these incidents don't have such happy endings.

[EBH]

Although the moral of the story is quite wrong.

The moral of the story is don't let your cat roam at large!!!

Poor kitten though...

[patriot08]

What a pretty girl ketteh. I’d adopt her in a minute!

[EBH]

ping

[nickcarraway]

If they drop the kitten back where she boarded the truck, won’t she find her own way back?

[JRandomFreeper]

The moral of the story is don't let your cat roam at large!!!

AMEN!

Mine never leave the house.

/johnny

[Viking2002]

No thanks. My wife adopted one of our neighbor's kittens (or vice versa - you know how cats do things). Then two of his litter mates discovered that the the quickest way to a hot meal is through our front door, so our front porch now looks like the wild cat habitat at Safari Land. Our Dachshunds are righteously pissed off about the situation, too.

"As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

--H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920

[ClearCase_guy]

If he wins the White House, Mitt Romney might take in the cat.

[surroundedbyblue]

Amen! My boy never leaves the house...,can’t risk anything happening to the prince or else I’d have one hysterical 5 year-old little girl.

[Bailee]

She probably lives within a mile of the McDonald’s parking lot. Cats love to curl up and sleep near a warm engine.

[04-Bravo]

A couple of years ago, I was with a buddy of mine at the Madera County fairgrounds racetrack, where he was racing his midget car. One of the other midget racers had towed his own race car from the central valley, and had already run some practice laps.

The guy opened the hood on his midget racer to show us the engine, when my friend said, “What’s that furry thing next to the carburetor?” The next thing we knew, a small cat jumped out of the engine compartment, and took off like a rocket towards an adjacent field. It was apparently uninjured, but it never came back. The guy said it looked like one of the cats from his ranch. I bet it had quite a ride.

[magslinger]

An engine compartment is a warm place for a cat to take a nap on a cold day. I’m sure it happens a lot more than we hear about on the Internet, sometimes with less happy endings and sometimes without anyone but the cat being any the wiser.

[Getready]

I once had a cat get into my cars front fender, by climbing throug
the front wheel well wall. I couldn’t explain that cat like
meow while I was driving. I went to work, got others to verify
that I wasn’t crazy, and it indeed sounded like a cats meow.
. I calledthe car company that I bought the car from(Saturn) and believe
it or not they sent out a technician to partially disasemble
the fender so I could get the cat out. Amazing service.

Well, unsuprisingly the cat had a new name, Freddy Fender.

[CrazyIvan]

She probably lives within a mile of the McDonald’s parking lot. Cats love to curl up and sleep near a warm engine.

I actually know of a guy who bought a Corvair* and would
back it into the garage because his cat loved to lay on the
warm hood and couldn't figure out why the new car had a cold
hood!

*THAT dates me!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks EBH.

[Slings and Arrows]

[Grams A]

My cat got out on a cold night and found a warm engine to curl up next to. Next day she found her way home but had horrible deep cuts all over her face, mouth and head. A great vet and many dollars later she was okay. Fed her finely ground canned salmon, yogurt and melted cheese which she wanted even after she was all healed and could once again chew. After that I always banged on the hood of my car before I got in. Every now and then a neighborhood cat comes flying out.

[ApplegateRanch]

please bang on the hood

Slamming the car door is enough for our cats to be seen streaking for shelter.

Besides, wouldn't banging on the hood get one arrested for indecent exposure or disorderly conduct or something?

Rosie, don't bang on the piano (no mp3 available)

[Ezekiel]

A video of the kitten shows the truth of her outgoing and friendly disposition. She can be seen rubbing and climbing all over Animal Control Officer George DeLeon: ...

Now if his name were say, Shepherd or Boxer...

[Slings and Arrows]

I tried banging on the hood, but I kept falling off.

[magslinger]

Your cat was lucky, both because I've heard a couple of stories of car owners that had a cat get into the engine compartment that required going down to the car wash and cleaning the engine and also because she had an owner willing to do what she needed and foot the bill to make her better.

Mrs Magslinger thinks she may have given a lift to a cat once. On a cool fall day she went to a friend's house. In our friend's neighbor's yard she saw a black and white cat. She didn't take much notice. After an hour or two Mrs Mag returned home. When she was getting out of the car, she saw a black and white cat come running out from under the car. Was it the same cat and it had hitched a ride? I don't know. It could have run under the car where my wife didn't see it and then back out.

Also, I have seen dead cats on the highway miles from where you would expect to see cats. They could have been feral cats. I think it possible that sometimes cats hitch a ride and then pull a D. B. Cooper.