They’re thinking of naming the kitten Ford or Escape. Lucky would be another fitting choice.
A kitten is fortunate to be alive after getting trapped along the bottom of an SUV for more than a day in the Okanagan.
It’s believed the feisty feline made its way into the engine bay of Lisa Bolton’s Ford Escape in Coldstream, B.C., sometime Sunday. The kitty’s cries for help, though, were certainly heard that night.
“I was sitting watching TV and I kept hearing what sounded like a cat crying,” Bolton told Global News.
“I went outside and walked around, and every time I’d go out, it would stop. I’d come back in, sit back down, watch some more TV and hear the noise again.”
Bolton said she looked under her car and all around it, but the noise would always stop.
Not able to find the source, Bolton said she went to bed, then heard a couple of cries during the night.
Come morning, Bolton said she looked around and didn’t see or hear anything, so she drove to work.
An hour after arriving at work, Bolton said a co-worker went outside briefly but quickly returned, saying Bolton’s Escape was making a cat sound, “like there’s a cat stuck inside it.”
Bolton said despite another search, nothing was found. So she took the vehicle to a nearby garage, OK Tire.
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Mechanics there popped the hood, then began searching. The kitten was quickly found, but scampered further into the engine bay after an attempt to pull it free.
Believing the kitten was somewhere along the bottom of the engine bay, the SUV was placed onto a lift, where one mechanic spotted the furry feline, hidden by the skid plate.
The skid plate was partially removed, which is when the kitten then bolted. One mechanic quickly grabbed it, but was met with a fury of fearful claws, eliciting yelps of pain.
Another mechanic intervened, and, with the kitten meowing loudly, held onto it, eventually calming him down.
“Holy moly,” one mechanic said of the large yowling and frantic attempt to escape from the small kitten.
Bolton noted that the mechanics’ rescuing skills came free of charge, adding “they were awesome” and “they were amazing.”
The one-time scaredy cat is now a friendly feline.
“This afternoon, he’s let us hold him, and he’s settled down so much,” said Bolton.
“He’s not quite so scared after being driven all over town inside the car.”
Bolton says if anybody is missing a kitty, she will gladly return it. But if not, she’s thinking it could be a new addition to the family.
“We had a cat a few years ago that passed away, and I wasn’t quite ready to get a cat for a while,” said Bolton.
“Lately, I’ve been looking online, so maybe this one was just meant to be showing up in our lives.”
As for a name, Bolton said “we’ve been calling him either Ford or Escape, because he was in my Ford Escape” — a name which, some might suggest, is purr-fect.