Cats are cute but sometimes clumsy

February 17, 2016 8:00 AM

Forget checking for hedgehogs on Bonfire Night - Nissan have put together an ad to remind you to knock on your car bonnet in the winter.
posted by mippy (40 comments total)

Some campaign background here, and the official website.
posted by mippy at 8:04 AM on February 17, 2016

I live in a state of constant anxiety, worrying about neighbourhood cats during the winter months.
posted by Kitteh at 8:13 AM on February 17, 2016 [4 favorites]

When I was little, our cat got outside and was lost for days. We thought she was nearby because we'd been putting out food. One morning I went outside before school to look for her, and I could hear her mewing from near the car, but I couldn't find her. I got my dad, who figured out that she'd crawled up under the hood. All was well, but I still don't like to think of what would have happened if I hadn't gone to look for her.

I really hate being anxious about cats. Now that we have one, in some ways it's worse because if I find a stray I can't take it in. (Our cat does Not Do Well with other cats.)
posted by Frowner at 8:14 AM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

Huh. So is that a potential solution to this NYC problem?
posted by The Bellman at 8:26 AM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

So this is a safety video, right? We once lost a kitten that way, someone drove the car without knocking and it died.
:(
posted by Namlit at 8:33 AM on February 17, 2016

I don't allow my cats to go outside, but I always worry about the ones in the neighborhood when it is insanely cold.

Love the link, thank you.
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 8:35 AM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

There was a story where I live last year where it was alleged some one had thrown two kittens out of a moving car on a busy road and they had been killed. There was a lot of local anger. It turned out they were strays that had got into the engine to keep warm, as this campaign warns.
posted by biffa at 8:43 AM on February 17, 2016

I don't drive, and whilst I know cats like hanging out under cars (they sense my cat-broodiness and run away) it would never occur to me to check the engine for kitties.
posted by mippy at 8:45 AM on February 17, 2016

This is infinitely better than the cavalcade of kit-TEN/rot-TEN that Les Schwab brought upon us.
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 8:46 AM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

I had a friend who found a kitten his engine, he named it T.C.
"Oh! For Top Cat!"
"No, Turbo Charger".
posted by BoscosMom at 8:56 AM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

I was in a public parking lot when someone started their car, and it was obvious from the sound that a cat had crept up into the engine compartment. I'll never forget that sound. I didn't bother to go look, the sound was enough, and then the following silence.
posted by King Sky Prawn at 8:57 AM on February 17, 2016

I had a friend who found a kitten in his engine

my cat gene is pretty much named for the same reason. somehow she survived the drive in the rainstorm tht led her to hide in the engine well/bonnet in the first place.
posted by cendawanita at 9:01 AM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

it would never occur to me to check the engine for kitties.

Isn't this what the Check Engine light is for?
posted by bitteroldman at 9:01 AM on February 17, 2016 [8 favorites]

Remember as days get colder animals are attracted to the warmth of cars so check wheel arches or other hiding places.
posted by maryr at 9:04 AM on February 17, 2016 [8 favorites]

At work, a few of us watched a co-worker get into her jeep, start it, and drive away. There was a brief but horrible noise when she started the engine, and a dead cat fell on the ground. We all agreed to not tell the Jeep driver what had happened. She didn't deserve that load of grief.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 9:04 AM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

Oh god this is the worst thread, this is the first time I am ever deleting something out of my active posts. I hate cars, I hate life, I hate everything.
posted by Frowner at 9:09 AM on February 17, 2016 [7 favorites]

A co-worker of mine learned to do this after his kitten climbed into the engine. I forget what the cat's name was before that, but afterwards it was known as Tripod.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:09 AM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

Understanding that cars will still pose a risk to strays, this serves as reason #3981094 people shouldn't let their cats out.
posted by mrbula at 9:11 AM on February 17, 2016 [4 favorites]

If you live in block heater country, engines become even more attractive because you're heating them while the car is parked for the night, and if the weather is such that you're using a block heater, it's very, very cold out.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:12 AM on February 17, 2016

Does anyone know of a way to block entrances to the engine/wheel wells so that cats can't hide there? Ugh.
posted by amtho at 9:13 AM on February 17, 2016

I have to check under my hood for my neighbor's loose cats, I have to move my bird-feeder so birds don't become easy to reach cat food, when gardening I have to be careful not to kneel in cat poop left by the neighbor's cat I have to be careful when I take my dog out, so it doesn't break loose going after the neighbor's cat sitting on my deck. There's an easy solution for all this....

/I AM a cat person, I have four, they are ALL, ALL THE TIME, in the house, safe, non-bird killing, not pooping in your garden, not playing suicide games on your engine block cats. You're welcome.
posted by HuronBob at 9:19 AM on February 17, 2016 [12 favorites]

Yous all have some serious mechanical problems if cats are getting into your engines. Check your gaskets.
posted by Dysk at 9:24 AM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

I've always liked you, HuronBob. Now I know why.

I, too, am owned by four felines who are not allowed outside. (Except for that one time, when one escaped while the maintenance guy was in my apartment. She spent five miserable, hot, wet days outside and when I finally came home [I was away], she heard me and came begging to be let back inside. Side benefit to that horror: she told the others of her ordeal and none of them approach the front door anymore.)
posted by LOLAttorney2009 at 9:28 AM on February 17, 2016 [7 favorites]

I really really want a cat, but a) we rent, and good luck finding a landlord here who will allow you to have pets b) we're on the first floor, and indoor cats are less common in the UK (maybe in London) and it doesn't feel right to me to not be able to let them go out and explore. I once lived in a houseshare with a cat, and I still miss Sylvester very very much. My bedroom overlooked the garden so I would sometimes see him hunting for mice, which would then be generously dropped in my lap whilst I was watching TV.
posted by mippy at 9:50 AM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

Also remember to knock on wing surfaces before takeoff.
yes, yes, as previously seen on the blue.
posted by Naberius at 10:01 AM on February 17, 2016 [4 favorites]

I really really want a cat, but a) we rent, and good luck finding a landlord here who will allow you to have pets b) we're on the first floor, and indoor cats are less common in the UK (maybe in London) and it doesn't feel right to me to not be able to let them go out and explore. I once lived in a houseshare with a cat, and I still miss Sylvester very very much. My bedroom overlooked the garden so I would sometimes see him hunting for mice, which would then be generously dropped in my lap whilst I was watching TV.

Leave a door open. Get some cat treats. You will have a neighbour's cat part-time in no time. Maybe several.
posted by srboisvert at 10:19 AM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

If only - the ground floor entryway is locked. They'd have to loiter outside until someone came home and then dash up the stairs.
posted by mippy at 10:37 AM on February 17, 2016

The local humane society here, has a catch-and-release program for feral cats. If you can provide cat food and a shed, they'll give you some feral cats. But the cats that are in this program aren't going to sit on your lap.
posted by elizilla at 10:39 AM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

Also, check your heater vents occasionally.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:10 AM on February 17, 2016

Leave a door open. Get some cat treats. You will have a neighbour's cat part-time in no time. Maybe several.

In my neighborhood this would get you a part time skunk.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:22 AM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

This has definitely been a problem in my neighborhood in the past, but only when it gets really cold, like -25 C (-13 Fahrenheit). The cats seem to know it's a risky last resort, and this winter it's been far too warm for that sort of thing.
posted by Kevin Street at 12:00 PM on February 17, 2016

Really? This far down, and no one's said it?

*sigh*

NEKOBANBAN is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their engines, or why.
posted by Etrigan at 12:19 PM on February 17, 2016 [4 favorites]

I guess I could finally close this. OH WAIT Cats under your hood is a bad thing!
FYI I am a cat person, I have 3 old cats, they are old because they do not go outside. I am always worried about cats inside my engine though... as well as laz-y-boy type chairs especially around kittens I can't even think ABOUT THAT.
posted by mrgroweler at 1:06 PM on February 17, 2016

When I was a kid on the farm, we had Silver Rocket Kitty (I named her) get under the hood of the truck one winter, and when my dad started it, the fan scalped her but didn't kill her. SRK was a barn cat, one of 30 or so, which generally meant that they were on their own — we didn't feed them or take them to the vet; they ate mice and lived or died on their own terms. But while the wound was gruesome, it wasn't fatal, and SRK was making the most pitiful cries… My parents couldn't afford to take her to the vet, really, but about then they were holding on to a neighbor's guns because she was afraid her drunk husband Lyle was going to murder her. So my dad got down the shotgun and the box of cartridges and aimed at the tonsured kitten in a bloody towel. He pulled the trigger — click. Nothing. Again — click. Nothing. Then the .22 cartridge comes dribbling down the barrel and boops SRK — my dad didn't know that you can't just put bullets into a shotgun. So they gritted their teeth and took SRK to the vet, who confirmed that there was no real treatment for exposed brains, and put her down.

It was, to my knowledge, the last time my father ever tried to fire a gun. It wasn't the last time a cat would die under the hood — even knocking wouldn't necessarily get all of 'em out, and sometimes some would climb back in between when you knocked and when you started the engine (it was cold enough in Michigan that barn cats might take the knocking as a suggestion to leave, not an order). But at least all the rest died cleanly compared to SRK.
posted by klangklangston at 1:49 PM on February 17, 2016

Silver Rocket Kitty

Shit. I didn't expect to cry in this thread.
posted by cynical pinnacle at 2:03 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

So, I can't "favorite" klangklangston's comment (for obvious reasons), but I can certainly state that it was a memory well shared.
posted by HuronBob at 3:14 PM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

When I was nine I had a cat that got his left rear leg mauled one morning when my dad started the car to go to work. He was sleeping under the hood and one of the belts sheared enough meat from his thigh that you could see the bone. This was in a third world country and so it was basically pronounced that my cat would die soon, if not from the blood loss then from infection. He was bloody and his eyes were glazed and his head was lolling and he looked so weak and sad and terrible. But I refused to believe that and so cleaned the wound, dressed it, and nursed him as best a kid could under the circumstances.

He made it.

But he changed. Before he was just a nice house cat who was affectionate and playful. He'd mew for his supper and play with balls and string. Sometimes he'd venture outside to the backyard but no further.

After the accident he became bold. He took to going out on long journeys in the neighborhood doing who knows what. He became fearless, and even the dogs left him alone and ceded the backyard to him (granted, they had scratches on their noses so it was apparently through vigorous persuasion). He learned to fend and feed for himself that we stopped leaving food out as it was going to waste, and even when he was around from one of his trips he never asked for a bite of anything.

In many ways he wasn't anyone's cat anymore. He was his own cat. On the days when I spot him at home I'd go out to the backyard, sit down, and call him. He would always stroll over with his now odd gait and sit on my lap while I petted him and sang and chatted with him. Then he'd have enough, get up, and disappear. I was the only human he responded to with any sort of friendliness; the rest simply got the stink eye as he questioned their presence before him.

I never saw him die. One day he decided to leave and I emigrated before I knew what happened to him. I'd like to think he sired a great many kittens in the neighborhood and roamed about raising them to be wary of humans and their cars but to totally mess with dogs and take their food; that he lived a long and happy life as a warrior cat who overcame adversity and maybe along the way decided I was the last strand to an old life that needed to be cut and that's why he left.

It makes me happy to know that he lived after that terrible morning and not just lived, but LIVED.

That was a great cat.
posted by linux at 3:15 PM on February 17, 2016 [8 favorites]

When I was a kid I remember my dad turning on the engine and hearing a YOWWWWLLLL and immediately turning it off and finding a startled but mosly okay stray kitten under the hood that we took care of for a few days before giving it to a rescue center (we had a dog who did NOT get along with cats.) This was in Houston. Please, please, check your hood if it's cold, no matter where you are.
posted by Navelgazer at 4:28 PM on February 17, 2016

Here I was, enjoying the vid, enjoying watching KittyP watch the vid. (3x) And then I had to read this DebbieDowner of a comment list. And now I'm glad I hadn't read it before i had the car looked at for a weird noise it'd made ON STARTUP.

I live in a state of constant anxiety, worrying about neighbourhood cats during the winter months.

One bitter cold night recently I woke up a new neighbor at 3 a.m. to ask if the cat that had been whining on her porch was hers. (No, and it ran away before I had a chance to think what I'd do with it. And the neighbor was too tired to slap me.)
posted by NorthernLite at 8:27 PM on February 17, 2016

3 years ago, my wife and I discovered a litter of 4 kittens in the bonnet of her car. 3 we gave away to a friend, but the 4th was super shy so we ended up keeping her. She's sitting here on my lap as I type, in fact. Her name is Sha.
posted by snwod at 8:30 PM on February 17, 2016 [4 favorites]