March 11 (UPI) — Firefighters in Pennsylvania responded to a neighborhood for an unusual rescue when a resident discovered a cat hiding under the hood of a car.
The Charleroi Fire Department shared photos on social media showing scenes from the rescue of the cat found hiding in the engine compartment of a vehicle parked on Meadow Avenue in Charleroi.
“A woman called and said she heard purring or meowing and she didn’t know where it was coming from at first, but sounded like it was coming from the car,” Charleroi Fire Chief Robert Whiten Jr. told the Mon Valley Independent. “So she had someone open the hood and there was a cat stuck inside near where the washing fluid would be. All you could see was a head popping out.”
Firefighters ended up having to partially dismantle the car’s innards to reach the feline’s hiding place.
“Our guys dismantled the interior fender and one headlight fixture, and there was so much room between the motor and the bumper the cat was a little scared, so it was running back and forth from one side to the other,” Whiten said.
The cat, believed to be a stray, was plucked out of the vehicle by a firefighter wearing heavy gloves and taken to the Washington Area Humane Society.
“Getting it off of the street was the biggest thing, you know, because we didn’t want it to crawl back in there or get hurt somewhere else running around. It was frosted up this morning, so it was probably just trying to stay warm,” Whiten said.