The neighborhood cat had some kittens. Cute little things, but one of them was under my car as I was trying to drive away. So I stop the car and my girlfriend and I try to shoo it out. It won't budge. Underneath my car is somehow much safer than whatever lies outside of it. Well, apparantly we scared it so much that it decided to go up into my engine compartment! As soon as I realize this I turn my engine off and I open the hood. Luckily it didn't get caught up in the pulleys. But the thing looks like it is sitting on the exhaust manifold burning itself and meowing. Finally it stops meowing and all I can see when I look down there is it laying on its side and its eyes are slowly binking. I thought it had crawled up into its doom. We left it there for awhile and to let the car to cool down. Upon coming back, we saw a little paw dangling from underneath the car -- but from the rear bumper! The thing crawled out of the engine bay and into the rear bumper! This time we were able to grab it out of there and get it to safety. OMG what a crazy little experience that was. I sure as hell didn't want little cat parts strewn about my engine compartment. Glad the little thing made it out OK too.

 

Glad to Hear Everything was Ok. Good thing the kitty didnt burn itself to death, when you said you saw it on its side and eyes slowly blinking......i thought the poor thing was dying

 

I'm glad the kitten and your car is ok.
Everytime I see my neighbor's cat under my car I try to shoo it away also. I'm afraid that it might try to jump into my engine compartment.

 

Thats why I am a dog person, they LIKE people, so they stay around us, plus they aren't bright or nimble enough to go climbing around inside cars which cost almost as much to maintain as they do. Glad the car and cat are OK, now go give your neigbor a slapping!

 

Spending 26 years up north and living next to a house with kittens it became a procedure to slap my fender a few times in the AM before starting.... Darn little (and big) buggers would crawl up into the radiator shroud amongst the belt driven fan.. My roommates girlfriend/early 70's GTO took no prisoners one cold morning.
I'm not a big animal fan but I also don't like seeing Gods creatures suffer....

--Nice work being compassionate for the little critter Millerrh.

 

That's that cat that comes with the car to ward off the rodents that eat the knock sensor wire.. You should have left it stay in the car!!!

 

This is the second time someone has mentioned a cat getting into their engine compartment (I tried to find the other thread, but no luck). You guys might want to look into getting a dog and/or a garage...both keep cats and would-be vandals/theives away.

 

Glad that turned out OK

A friend in Austin had a snake in the engine compartment of his Supra. He was driving along and heard a sudden weird sound from the engine. He pulled over and shut off the engine, poped the hood to see remains of a long snake all over his engine. It had gotten into the belts and met it's demise.

 

 

I have heard about putting a tiger in your tank but a kitty in the engine compartment...! yuk yuk yuk...

 

that happened to me once...i just try to scared it away with a stick...haha but i didnt poke it or anything...

 

Man this thread looked like it was nothing but bad news. Glad to hear the little guy was alright. I had a big ass ground hog get into the engine on my Maxima at my job parking lot. Couldn't start the car, so I popped the hood and there he was, scared the hell out of me. He managed to eat through a crank sensor, oxygen sensor and a wiring harness. Cost was about $1500 to fix. Insurance covered everything, the job picked up the deductible. I am feeling good about the covered engine on the TL, but I do see a lot of exposed wires I am not to crazy about.

 

SAME!!! that would have been such a terrible story

 

A cat got in my Monte Carlo when it was IN my garage... I could hear it when I was in the house, but could never find it in the garage when I looked....

I even left the door opened at night so its mom could come and get it or it would leave, but no luck... finally I found it up in the rear suspension.. dang thing nearly clawed me to death, but I did not kill it...

 

I have cats and it would be sad to have him spread all over the engine. But F..K the cat, can you imagine cleaning that shit up, and the smell after a nice warm day! Shit you are lucky it wasn't worse

 

Yeah no shit! I wasn't worried about the cat so much as I was about little kitten parts being slung all around my engine bay. That smell would NEVER go away... bleh... I shudder just thinking about it. But I'm glad the cat made it out OK too. Probably was burnt pretty bad though.

 

Wow....

My mom had a rat/mouse have babies under her hood of her '98 blazer. It was a 3rd car and didnt get driven every day, the mouse had built a little nest of leaves under the hood in one little spot to have its babies in... well, in order to make the nest more of a "pocket" the mouse chewed through about 15 wires in two places... smart little fella!! (i mean, so basically it "took out" a section of these wires that were in it's way so it could make the nest). Well, I called the dealer to see about the harness, the part alone was like $500 or something... it was part of a main harness. So I just added some short pieces of wire, soldered them all in and heat shrinked each one... took like 15 minutes.... hah. the dealer said they couldn't do that though, they'd have to replace the whole thing!! BS.

 

Last year, my buddy went to start his Passat, hears an unpleasant noise as it starts up, a bunch of warning lights on the dash go on, his power steering goes out. Has the car towed to the dealer where the dealer then spends the next half day cleaning parts of dead rat or some other small animal out of the engine compartment and remounting the belts.