This is the best video I have seen of a domestic cat being extracted from a car engine! I know that it is a specialist cinematic field but a lot of cats get trapped in car engines because they are warm places. Therefore there are lots of videotaped cat extractions.
VIDEO IS LOADING! PLEASE BE PATIENT — Note: the video is short but please turn on the sound – bottom right of the video player controls.
This placid and accepting domestic cat became trapped in a car engine in Canberra, Australia on Thursday. The cat was lucky because Sarah Hart happened to notice the cat hanging below the engine as the car was parked on an incline and she was able to see underneath the car.
She thought the cat was dead. The car was parked at Westfield Woden which appears to be a shopping centre. She posted a page on the Canberra Noticeboard Group’s Facebook Page and alerted the owner by having them paged inside the shopping centre.
Subsequently she heard some desperate meows from the cat confirming that she was alive. The car owner then turned up. The woman did not own the cat. She opened the bonnet (hood) and permitted security from Westfield Woden to rescue the cat. It involved dismantling part of the engine and took about one hour.
The video is great as it captures the moment the cat was extricated from the engine. The video was taken by Sarah Hart. She mentioned that it was quite a coincidence that she was actually in that car park at that time.
She doesn’t usually shop during the week and if she did shop at the centre she normally parked in the underground car park but couldn’t on this occasion because it was full. Further, she was only there because she had finished work early. She had the afternoon off and by chance there happened to be an empty space in front of the car in question.
The cat is a domestic cat and appears to be unharmed. She was receiving veterinary care and being checked for a microchip. Apparently she has been reunited with her owner. The cat appears to have been lucky because the woman who drove the car (with her female companion) usually go for a walk in their lunch break but this time decided to go for a drive to Woden. But for that decision the cat may well have died in the engine.
It makes me sick to think of cats getting mangled in engine compartments. I’m so glad to see rescues like this. People should be reminded that animals do this and to save them. I wonder how many aren’t and then aren’t reported.
Also, people need to learn that cats don’t appreciate applause the way we do. It scares them. You’d think we’d learn that by now. We should remind each other to stfu when we want to make loud noises around a cat, especially when they’re already scared.
Good point Albert. I like that.
Another good point. There will be lots of cases where the cat was killed or badly injured and unreported. Another example of how the human world is dangerous.