Cat rescued from a less than purrfect home
1 min read
Mechanic Craig Deighton made a remarkable discovery when he lifted the bonnet of a Citroen van – a black cat was lying in the engine compartment having very probably hitched a 27-mile lift from Rotherham to Leeds.
The van had been driven to the Leeds garage of Brown & Rose, for a routine service.
Garage owner John Scollen said: "Craig spotted the cat between the inlet manifold and the cylinder head. He called me to have a look and the cat looked petrified. We had to take the airbox off to get close to the animal because it had got itself so hemmed in.
"The cat then buried itself in the back of the engine and it took two hours to tease it out from beneath the bonnet."
The driver, who had driven the van from his home in Rotherham to Leeds, wasn't the cat's owner and an inspection of the cat by a local vet to see if it had been chipped failed to identify who was so the animal was handed over to the Leeds branch of the Canine Defence League with a £10 donation.
"We believe the cat probably climbed into the engine to keep warm before the driver set off from his Rotherham home," Scollen said. It was a lovely black cat, very friendly and well trained although it was a little frightened by its new surroundings.
"We gave it some milk and fed it and tried to make it feel at home in the garage. We hope that by giving the cat to the Canine Defence League it found the purrfect home. We think the cat had been in the van for some time because we found fur in sections of the engine compartment. It is the first time that we have found an animal under the bonnet of a vehicle. We have previously only found evidence of squirrels having climbed aboard and eaten away at air filters and chewing through wires."
Brown & Rose is equipped with Masterview – a unique remote video inspection system launched by FSG that enables fleet managers to view the condition of vehicles and components anywhere around the country, either in real time or recorded for later transmission.
FSG operations director Julian Bailey-Watts said: "Masterview is usually used to identify and provide a record of work that is required on vehicles that go into out garage network for service, maintenance and repair. This is the first time that the video technology has identified an animal in a vehicle."
