Kitty in the Engine!

This morning's drive back from lunch is an unusual experience... I had both Andrina and Janet in my car and we were going about with our womanly yackety yack yack when I heard a continuous distressed 'meowing' in the car.

I asked the other two women whether they've heard it, and Andrina thinks that it's the music, and we continued to drive, and I couldn't get the 'meowing' sound out of my head, and switched off the radio --> there we heard it loud and clear. Andrina was panicky as she's frightened of cats, while Janet and I were trying to find out where the sound came from. Confirmed - no cat found inside the car, but still, I pulled over at the highway, leaving my hazzard lights on.

Janet got down the car to help me look for the 'cat', but we heard no more 'meowing', and I started doing the 'cat call' like I always do back home (a way to get cats to respond to me). There it is, a loud clear 'meow' broke through the noise from the highway and it continued it's distressed call again and again. Both Janet and I went down on our knees to check all the tires, and even lied down on the grassy patch of the road to check whether it's under the body of my car! We followed the 'meowing' and finally detected that it's from my engine!

So, I opened up the hood of the engine, and peep inside. There it is, below another hot pipe, but supported by a flat plate near the base of the pipes, a black & white kitty, not more than 6 weeks' old, clinging on to another nearby rubber pipe. Eye-contact - it stopped meowing for a bit, and blinked once, twice and looked elsewhere. Then looked at me again with it's green eyes and meowed even louder, as if I'm Mama cat coming to the rescue!!! lol I reached out to get the kitty, but couldn't reach the spot that is so low down in the engine. It was hot there, scalded myself a little bit in the process. Both Janet and I took turns trying to get the kitty out, as the engine pipes were so hot! Cars slowed down to see what we're doing, causing a little bit of a traffic on both sides.

Finally, we got hold of it, and took it into the car, and let the kitty rest on my lap while I start the engine. Before I knew it, Andrina jumped out of the car!! It gave the kitty a startle, and it started to run up to the dashboard. I had to make a quick grab at it before it hurt itself. Andrina was going crazy outside the car saying, "Get it out of the car, get it out of the car!" Here we are, trying to save a kitty, and Andrina won't come back into the car, with her face all pinched-looking, and about to burst into tears! How could anyone be so frightened at the sight of the poor, cute innocent kitty! Can you imagine that? lol

Oh dear, so, I passed the poor kitty to Janet, who's seated at the back, and both Janet and I encouraged Andrina to come back into the car. We took a U-turn, and drove back to the place where we had lunch and set the kitty free, far away from the main roads and into a playground / field. I held it in my arms, and it had it's eyes half-closed and purring away. I smiled at it, and it seemed to know that I'm affectionate of it, and it gave a 'throaty meow'... love cats!!! They're so cute!

Both Janet and I stood at the side of the field for about 5 minutes, watching the kitty happily jumped around, obviously found something to play with on the field, a cricket? Not sure. But, we felt like heroines, having saved a cat. We would have stood there longer, if Andrina wasn't hollering from the car for us to get back to the office.

Hmm... I would have brought the kitty back home if I'm at home most of the time *sigh*, but my brother kicks cats and would be most unsupportive, and Wai Yee has equivalent sentiments with Andrina - terrified of cats!

Anyway, I feel good about my day - saved a cat! lol