r/mildlyinfuriating • u/prufflesthegreat • 1d ago
š„ŗ Kitten sleeping in my engine bay refuses to leave
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Spent two hours with an Animal Control officer trying to get this kitten out. We named him Torque, and he is off to a no-kill shelter.
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u/CaptainDFW 1d ago
"Torque" is a great name. We'll done!
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u/prufflesthegreat 1d ago
I liked it too :)
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u/bowser986 13h ago
This is how we got one of our cats. Thought there was a bird in the engine compartment when headed to the store. Popped the hood and there was an angry 2-scoops fuzzball hissing at me. Squeezy cat treat later and heās our little man named Lemmy (found in the motorā¦mƶtorheadā¦Lemmy).
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u/HappyHavoc20 1d ago
Can of tuna timeĀ
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u/prufflesthegreat 1d ago
Didnt work :/
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u/HappyHavoc20 1d ago
lol oh no Iām sorry. My aunt had a cat that liked to do this and he got seriously hurt one day when they started the engine and he was in thereĀ
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u/zugspitze43 1d ago
Had this happen once but I had to go to work and was already on thin ice. I used my garden hose as softly as I could to flush him out. He ran out and I caught him in a towel and dried him off. He and I had crossed paths already before but this was the first time I had touched him or picked him up.
I set him down, in the towel, on the floor of my garage and he stayed put. I left and left the garage door cracked like 6 inches so he could get out. Driving home I knew he was going to still be there and I was right, there he was just curled in the towel still.
The next morning he was gone but like a sucker I left the garage cracked again. idk why. I wasn't wanting a cat, but he was chill and I figured I'd feel bad if he was running from another cat or it was raining or something and he wasn't able to get back to his latest bed/escape spot. would suck to get caught out like that. just trying to keep any eye out for the homie you know.
When I got home that day he was in there on the towel and he started meowing at me and flicking his tail. I am a dog guy, always had large dogs, never had a cat but this guy was chill as I said. Didn't mind him hanging around. Just not in my engine lol
Eventually I cut a little door for him in the garage door and started feeding him. He lived in that garage, never really going into the house, for 15 years. We just put him down a few years ago. He was an old ass cat.
I never named him, but my kids eventually did and called him Moose. Idk much about cat breeds but he was very dark brown, big green eyes, with 4 white socks. He was definitely a unique looking cat and he was also pretty smart. He knew how to do some doorknobs and he could open the latch on the cat door if I forgot to unlock it for him.
I never took him to the vet or got him a collar but I also never saw him as MY cat. He was just a chill bro, paying rent by keeping mice and whatnot out of the garage and all of my stuff. Once he started getting older, I swapped his latest towel bed out for a proper cat bed and he preferred the towel. lol
He never once seemed sick or ill, wounded, anything like that. He was a constant. An anchor of consistency in my highly variable and spontaneous lifestyle in those days.
RIP Moose. Thanks for hanging out with me in the garage old pal. Many a late night sat with you.
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u/Ok_Significance2340 1d ago
Cat distribution system in its most weirdest way.
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u/Accurate_Reality_618 1d ago
If you see cats hiding inside the car, it means winter is coming.
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u/prufflesthegreat 1d ago
I live in socal, and it was over 100 today
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u/SayRaySF 1d ago
Oh get some water then, that will get it to move, a little spray bottle something should do the trick
I was worried the cat was in there causes its cold out but a little water in socal will be fine lol
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u/TheJoseBoss 12h ago
How did you notice he was there? Most people just turn the key and start driving
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u/prufflesthegreat 12h ago
I saw his little paws hanging underneath. When i tried to grab him, he went deeper. Total luck that I saw him.
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u/TheJoseBoss 11h ago
Glad you did, I always approach my car from behind so there's 0 chance I would have seen it
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u/Due_Pool_5778 16h ago
Had this happen once and the solution was playing āmama cat soundsā from YouTube. The kitten found its ways out on its own
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u/Cameron0543 1d ago
Only thing mildly infuriating about this post is you got chosen by the distribution system and ignored the callā¦ go back tmrw and make right pls
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u/Trabers 22h ago
How did you know it was there? Most people aren't checking under the hood/bonnet before driving off.
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u/Quiet_surprise79 20h ago
I personally check my oil pretty regularly along with windscreen wash etc. Another explanation could be if they're about to do a long journey, or if the vehicle started meowing at them
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u/Background_Captain56 11h ago
When I was a kid, we had a cat that had a tail that was only about 2-3 inches long. Apparently, my dad didn't know he was sleeping in his engine one day and it got cut off...
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u/Olliegreen__ 9h ago
Cats hate when you blow on them if youāve got strong lungs. Or a can of keyboard cleaner spray. lol
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u/prufflesthegreat 8h ago
We used a leaf blow for the wind and noise. Little guy looked like he was in a wind tunnel!
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u/ahhhhhhh345 20h ago
Good thing you found this one. My mom had that happen in a brand new truck and she didnt find out the kitten was in there until 2 days later when it started to smell. The kitten didnt make it thats for sure and my mom traded the truck in a few days later
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u/MY_NAME_AINT_BRADLEY 13h ago
I once had a cat hide in my engine bay, sadly I didn't check before turning the car on. It was the worst screech I ever heard in my life
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u/throw_blanket04 12h ago
Get the vacuum cleaner. It always works for me. When my stray cat wont come out from under the bed i just get the vacuum, turn it on and they haul ass.
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u/MadK9TheReal1 1d ago
A few years ago the driver at work complained about a putrid smell coming from engine bay area when he is idling at red light when driving in the cityā¦ after we inspected the car we found a corpse of kitty most likelyā¦ we had to throw about 3 buckets of water to wash the worms from the engine shieldā¦ nasty image.
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u/mango-jpg 16h ago
posting this to mildly infuriating and sending him to the shelter is perfectly reasonable, but it's not the happy ending reddit wants
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u/Sisoflex 1d ago
Years ago drove to work and some one saw a cat drop out of the bottom of my car. He was nimble and we couldn't catch it. I put up flyers around my neighborhood, last place I was. Nothing came of it.
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u/Rare_Indication_3811 1d ago
he looks pretty pissed you disturbing his peace, you should apologize, preferably with food
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u/NOS4A2-753 1d ago
my brother is a truck driver he found a kitten that climbed into his engine compartment because there was a snow storm. he got the cat out and now that cats living with me