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A woman noticed an odd noise coming from her car and pulled into a Bakersfeld auto shop yesterday. A kitten hiding in a wheel well became frightened and retreated into the engine, then was rescued by a California highway patrol officer and found a home.
It could have been a cat-tastrophe. A woman noticed her engine wasn’t purring right, so she pulled into a local smog shop.
It was anything but a typical day on the job for Juan Elias. He was at Elias Smog Test Center on 24th Street and Chester when a woman came in with an odd complaint.
“This lady came random asking me ‘Oh, I hear a noise in the car.’ I was like ‘what do you hear?’ She said, ‘it sounds like a cat,'” said Elias.
So, Elias began looking for the critter. And, it didn’t take long for him to find a small gray cat tucked into the rim of the wheel.
But before he could get it, the cat crawled up near the engine. That’s when Elias flagged down CHP Officer Carrie Creel.
“I got some gloves out and we put it out on the rack. About 20 minutes of work, but we got it out. She’s okay. Two blocks in the engine compartment. She’s relaxing, a little shaken up, but I think she’s gonna be okay,” said Officer Creel.
During the rescue, Officer Creel suffered third degree burns on her arm when she accidentally hit the hot engine.
As for the cat, it survived without a scratch and was adopted on the spot by a woman who was at the shop.
