Miracle ‘grilled’ cat claimed

A cat’s tale of survival after riding 41⁄2 hours stuck behind the front grille of a car now has an unbelievable plot twist.

A domestic medium-haired feline, who is now known to be named Phillip, was found missing claws and clinging for life behind the bumper of a Chevy Camaro in New Plymouth after a 360-kilometre journey originally believed to have begun in Auckland.

The Tuesday incident and the cat’s unlikely survival spread quickly across the country, with the news eventually reaching the pet’s family who live in Ngaruawahia – not Auckland.

North Taranaki SPCA’s Jackie Poles Smith said the cat suffered severe hypothermia and shock and was rescued by workers of the hotel where the classic car was parked.

Only the Pendergrast family claimed the cat, she said.

Poles Smith said the Ngaruawahiabased family proved Phillip was theirs – leaving all involved baffled as to how he was picked up by the car which did not stop once during the trip from Auckland to New Plymouth. But after speaking again with the driver, Poles Smith came to realise that, while almost unbelievable, it was not entirely impossible.

She said the driver had taken the back roads through Ngaruawahia and remembered seeing out of the corner of his eye what could have been an animal sitting on a grass verge as he passed.

‘‘He said he was doing about 30 kmh at the time,’’ she said.

Phillip lives near that grass verge and all parties have since conceded that by way of a miracle he ‘‘somehow leapt into the path of the car and somehow got bowled under the car and whipped up under the grille’’.

Owners Doug and Laura Pendergrast travelled to New Plymouth on Saturday to pick him up.