Cat found after two weeks in car engine
It's the last place you'd think to look for a lost pet.
Two weeks after her owners noticed she was missing, Princess the cat was found emaciated and disoriented inside the bonnet of the family's car.
Julie Tansley, 40, had driven hundreds of miles around her home town of Nottingham and even taken her BMW through a car wash before a warning light on her dashboard began to flash. It was when she pulled over to check her car's coolant levels that she discovered her beloved pet wedged beneath the engine.
"I had no idea where she had gone, then I was driving along and noticed the warning light came on the dashboard," Tansley said.
"I didn't know what the light actually was so I checked in the book and saw that it was coolant.
"I have absolutely no idea how she managed to get there. It wasn't until I opened the bonnet I had any idea that she could be there.
Princess had triggered the warning light by clawing her way through a coolant hose.
She was found in such a precarious position that in order to free her the vehicle had to be partially dismantled.
"As you can see on the video she had no way of getting out of there by herself. It wasn't as if she was curled up lying down there either, she was stretching up on her back legs in there.
"I tried to get to her but I just couldn't, in the end I phoned the guy who lives across the road because he owns a scrap yard.
"He sent around one of his mechanics to see what they could do.
"They had to take one of the headlights out and take other things out too before Princess could be reached."
Now back at home with her owners, Princess is on the road to recovery.
"She was covered in horrible coolant when we got her out, we had to wash her down straight away.
"She's alright now though, but she is really really thin as she hasn't eaten for two weeks, but she's happily eating and walking around as if nothing happened.
"Now we've got quite an expensive repair coming up, I don't know how but it seems she was so desperate to get out she clawed right through the hose.
'It has cost over £300 to replace that hose, so it's an expensive way to travel having your cat with you.
"If the warning light hadn't come on I dread to think what would have happened," Tansley said.
