A driver was surprised to hear the pleas of a cat coming from somewhere buried within her car. Fortunately, they were able to make an unexpected stop at a fire station headquarters. Though there were no firefighters on hand to help, the service staff came to the rescue and discovered where the meowing was coming from.
Woman drives to fire and rescue service headquarters for aid
It took a long time for the staff at the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service in the UK to figure out where the cat was trapped in the vehicle, according to a post from the fire station’s official Facebook page on July 23. Employees from Operational Resourcing, Digital and Data, HR, Executive Support, and Estates investigated the car for the source of the meow.
But with some “searching, stretching, and some careful vehicle dismantling,” the rescuers were able to locate the tiny kitten lodged within the arch of the front wheel.
“We think she must have gone in through the engine,” enterprise data manager Amy Down told the BBC, “…and I found a very small hole that took her into the space above the front wheel arch.
Down recalls trying to coax the kitten out who was “terrified,” “oily”, a “bit dehydrated,” and “completely overwhelmed by the whole thing.”
“She was so terrified that there was no way she was going to come out herself,” she continued, “so the only option we had was to take apart the wheel arch from the underside.”
After naming the kitten Jessie, in a nod to the emergency service’s JESIP system, the animal was taken to a vet and an employee’s home for a weekend to recuperate. It was later brought into the care of the Cats Protection Honiton and Axe Valley branch.
Heidi Cruickshack, who is fostering the cat for the charity, said the kitten was around seven weeks old and covered in fleas when it arrived. “Jessie was very fortunate,” she explained, “as she could have remained stuck and starved or fallen from the car at speed.”
Cats Protection will put Jessie up for adoption once she’s ready for a new home.
