A “terrified” cat has survived a five-mile round trip under the bonnet of a car on a school run.
Rose the black cat was found nestled in the bonnet of David King’s Vauxhall Astra when he decided to do an oil check after dropping his grandson off at school in Kent.
Mr King’s wife Tina said her husband had come “running in” and was “shouting for me to come have a look”.
“I thought whatever’s wrong?” she said.
“What I didn’t expect to see was two eyes staring back at him from a ball of fluff.
“We weren’t even sure it was alive. I gently prodded it with a stick to check it was breathing and saw it was a terrified little cat.
“It reversed even further into the engine and was stuck. I tried to reach it but it was too far down and there wasn’t any way I could coax it out.”
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Following a rescue by UK charity Cats Protection, four-year-old Rose was later reunited with her owner, Mr King’s neighbour Allison Webster.
Ms Webster said she thought Rose was sleeping in her son’s bedroom when she was actually under Mr King’s bonnet.
She said: “Rose is my family and she had quite an experience with all that she went through.
“Rose is back to galloping around the house as if nothing happened but I’m pretty sure she has used up one of her nine lives.
“Bless her, she’s a very lucky cat and I’m lucky to have her.”
Kim Braysher, from Cats Protection’s Swale branch, said Rose “must have been petrified all the time the car was driving on the busy school run”.
