Let miaow-t! Cat’s 130 miles in car engine
SHE had probably been seeking a warm nook to snuggle up in away from the winter chill.
But after climbing into a car engine the naive cat quickly realised she’d fluffed up – when the owner got in and set off on a 130-mile trip.
The motorist drove all the way from Birmingham to east London with the cat trapped helplessly under the bonnet.
He realised he had a stowaway on board only when he pulled up outside a block of flats and people told him they could hear miaowing. When the bonnet was opened, he saw the traumatised tortoiseshell looking back at him. Locals living in the flats took the cat in following her Christmas Day ordeal until she could be collected by a cat rescue charity.
Now the Celia Hammond Animal Trust is appealing for the owner to come forward. It said it suspected the ‘sweet’ and ‘very friendly’ female was a pet. But she is not microchipped and the trust has no idea where she is from.
Staff at the trust have been checking lost pet sites in Birmingham and its Facebook post has received thousands of shares from social media users hoping to help trace the owner.
Miss Hammond said the cat was uninjured but ‘very frightened’. She added: ‘We have no idea where the cat has come from at all.
‘The people who were there were more interested in getting the cat safe and didn’t ask the man where in Birmingham he had come from and he didn’t stay very long.
‘It would be great if we could find the owner, but it is a real needle in a haystack.’