We, very literally, have a bit of a fluff piece for this Friday afternoon. Coming out of Frankfort, KY, a curious little kitten had mistakenly selected the rear subframe of a 2000 Honda Accord as a safe resting place. Little did she know, she was about to have a very tall tale to tell her furry friends.
Earlier this week, over a journey of several hours, the kitten rode from Lexington to Versailles to Frankfort in the undercarriage of the Honda. It wasn’t until the car’s owner was stopped at a Hardee’s restaurant that he finally heard her meowing from within the chassis. By good fortune, they were right next to Midas of Frankfort, which is owned by a fellow racer and friend, Scott Bourne. When the restaurant manager went over and asked Scott if his crew could help, they didn’t pussy foot around and got right to it.
The Midas team, along with a local Lexington fireman who had taken his car in for service, found a very shaken and exhausted (see what I did there?) gold and white kitten with her head lodged in a hole within the rear subframe. Apparently, with no boxes around to sit in, this place seemed like her next best option.
Let it not be lost on us that this gold-colored feline was in a Midas shop. Was she gold before she came in? Or was it the Midas-touch that produced her golden hue? This is what mythology and marketing dreams are made from, my friends.
Scott and his lead technician worked on dropping the rear subframe of the 20-year old Honda Accord while the fireman comforted the kitten and shielded its precious little ears. To the credit of the Honda, every bolt came loose with no issues, despite being quite rusty. The owner of the car offered to pay for the service, but Scott hissed at the thought and wouldn’t hear of it. He just wanted the cat safely out.
With the purrrty little kitten safely out of the Accord, she spent the night recovering with Scott and his family. Midas of Frankfort held a naming contest for their feline friend and posted the following results:
“We have decided on a name given to us by Max Cady. Her name will be #Marigold, which according to Greek Mythology, was the name of King Midas’ daughter. Even after being plagued by Midas’ curse, was brought back through the grace of Dionysus’ powers! It sounds very similar to #Miracle which was an overwhelming suggestion! She will be nicknamed Mari!”
Marigold was checked out by a veterinarian and received all her updated shots and vaccinations before being offered to a new home. Her new family will be long time friends of the Bourne family and are highly successful local autocrossers. Maybe Marigold’s love of cars will find her frequenting the Central Kentucky region SCCA autocrosses later this year.
[Images: Scott Bourne]
Lucky pussy.
That’s a beautiful kitty.
They were sure she wasn’t already owned by someone else?
They stated in one of their posts that the cat was not chipped. Unfortunately, they could not tie it back to its potential owner. As much traction as this story is getting, though, if the cat did have an owner, they may find it by reading about it!
Shared this story on FB page.
:-)
As did I.
In the Great White North it is not unusual for cats and other small animals to climb up onto the engine for warmth in the winter especially with the use of block heaters. There have been disastrous cases of panicking critters trying to get out once the engine starts and getting caught in the belts and fan.
As an aside, there was a case of a German Shepard who liked to steal block heater extension cords. I’ve known people who have had brake lines chewed up by porcupines. Mice like air intakes as a nesting location.
You don’t have to go that far North. In the little rural corner of Ohio my Dad developed the habit of blowing the horn on his work vehicle every morning before he started it after one cat got killed by a fan blade due to sleeping habits and another cat made it from our house to the stop sign (about a 1/4 mile) before dropping out of the bottom of the car and taking off like a shot.
I’d always thump the hood five or ten times in the morning. I remember the poor kitten next to the radiator lying on the fan that I accidentally murdered one morning…
Me and my dad have developed a habit of this with our respective DS-series late-model/”classic” Ram 1500’s when parked at my parents’ house. We don’t really want the feral cats to stowaway, and we’d maybe be happier if they were less numerous, but also we’d rather not kill them with the fan or the accessory drive belt at startup.
Obviously that wouldn’t be good for the poor kitty, but that would probably make a mess of the pulleys, tensioners and whatnot for the serpentine belt!
Ouch! That’d mess me up for quite some time!
Glad this one had a positive outcome!
Mice can be amazingly destructive to cars, tractors, your house, you name it. Had them die in the walls and it’s Sawzall time to get rid of the stink. I do catch/release spay/neuters (endless supply of barn cats around here) and adopted a few to keep the vermin under control.
We have cats huddling on warm engines in Maryland. I suspect it happens practically everywhere. And with the same sad results.
That little girl is a cutie. Kudos to the good guys for giving her a second chance at life.
Mouse nest (and resident mouse) cooked by an engine is NOT a good smell. Ask me how I know!
Several years ago my buddy showed up a work, got out and heard a cat crying. Lifted the hood and found a kitten sitting on the frame back by the firewall on the driver’s side. Presumably it climbed in there at his home ~15mi away. It was a Diesel F-350 so have to wonder if the poor kitty still had any hearing and didn’t get to hot being that near the engine.
How many miles would that kitten have been stuck? Glad the little guy was okay.
Seeing at how clean it was it probably hopped up in there while the owner was in the restaurant.
Our Doberman went along trailriding one year. While camped, she got out of the heat under the horse trailer and burrowed beneath the twin axles to stay cool. Then she couldn’t get out. Had to jack the trailer up to drag her out. She never did it again.
Cute kitten and good article. This kitten deserves a good home with lots of love.
Sweetie pie.
Cutie
Glad it came out well ~ so often it doesn’t =8-( .
When I was working in a Sanitation yard late one night, one of the Mechanics came to me saying ‘I can hear a cat meowing inside the bed’ ~ he knew I liked animals .
Investigation revealed a kitten had somehow climbed up a cab over Peterbuilt and fallen inside the bed, between the packer blade and the front of the bed ~ we were able to fish him out, he looked like an oil rag dropped into the shop drain’s clarifier ~ YUCK ! .
“Packer Juice” had to be seen and smelled to grasp just how nasty it is….
NO ONE wanted to touch that poor kitten .
I called a crazy old Woman who worked a different shop and had a houseful of cats, she cursed me out but came and saved it, last thing I heard it was still living close to ten years later, healthy and happy .
-Nate
My buddy had a skunk living under the hood of his Nissan for a few days. It stinks!
I’ll bet no amount of whatever sprayed into the HVAC intake got that right again!
A happy ending…nice that there are still some people willing to lend a helping paw…just get the little kitty fixed!
As did I.
Had some creature, probably rat or similar, pickup beans that dropped off a mesquite tree in the yard. It took them to the top of the S.O.s Mustang engine, chewed them open, ate the insides, and left the husks. I discovered this in the monthly service check of engine vitals. Huge pile of bean husks, took over an hour to clean up.
After that I swept up the beans when they fell off the tree. Then whatever it was ate some of the sound insulation off the underside of the hood.
Also found out from a neighbor across the road that one of our cats often would hide out on the top of the tires of her SUV. The cat was probably trying to get away from another cat or a dog. The neighbor dropped her keys and then saw the cat when she picked them up. She showed me a photo. The cat had a “do not bother me, I’m hiding” look on his face.
After that the neighbor checked her car every time she went to drive it.
Almost 15 years ago I had a cat ride in the engine compartment of my 1999 Odyssey for two trips, one 45 miles, the other over 600 over a three day span. Oh, and one trip included a car wash.
It was a friend’s cat but they weren’t going to travel 600 miles to retrieve her, so we adopted her. She lived with us for over 10 years I think.
Story on my old blog here:
http://www.salguod.net/weblog/archive/2009/10/two-cat-tales.shtml
I’ve heard that you DO NOT WANT TO MESS with a calico cat! Just like a high-maintenance human being of the fairer persuasion! Except worse!!!
Even with the average Domestic Shorthair, your house becomes THEIRS! You just pay the bills!
I went to check the oil in my F-150 the other day. When I opened the hood, I scared a bird that was hanging out between the engine and the firewall. I drove it about a half hour later. Hopefully it got out of there.
Had a somewhat similar experience where I wound up in a Honda and it didn’t turn out as well as expected. Won’t make that mistake again.
Reminder to self: Honda is not Toyota.
@sgeffe–Not just Calicos, most cats are that way. My last cat was a Bengal which is a cross between an Asian Leopard and a domestic short hair striped cat. My wife and I were definitely her human subjects. She definitely had a Alpha personality very much like Garfield. She was a nice pet and very entertaining–she could out talk my wife’s Siamese. She was a beautiful cat with spots on her body and stripes on her legs–brown with black spots
Boy, that could have easily turned into a cat… tastrophe.
Anyone who says that cat was lucky ain’t kitten.
It must have been stuck in the… purrrfect position to not get hurt.
I’m… feline… very warm and fuzzy after reading this story.
You might even say the cat is in a very good home meow.
Thanks folks, I’ll be here all week!
Niiice! LOLZ!! :-D
Pun strings on this subject give me pause! It’s claws for alarm!
Well done! :D
? How’s the Veal ? .
-Nate
You can follow Marigold on her very own facebook page!
https://www.facebook.com/MarigoldTheMidasKitten/