Kitten Stuck Under SUV Engine Survives 30-Mile Drive

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL — During his 14 years working with Hillsborough County Fleet Management, Louis Perea has been tasked with making a lot of vehicles purr like a kitten.

However, this was the first time he's been asked to make a vehicle stop purring.

Perea happened to be on call on a Sunday afternoon, manning the emergency fleet management line, when he received a frantic call from a county employee who had encountered a "cat-astrophe."

David Ramirez, an athletics manager with Hillsborough County Parks & Recreation, thought he heard a meow when he stepped out of the county-owned Ford Escape he had just driven from Ruskin to the Skyway Sports Complex near Tampa International Airport.

"I'm looking at the radio, my phone, wondering where this meowing is coming from,'' Ramirez said.

He figured it out the next time he heard the plaintive sound.

Somewhere in the body of the Ford Escape was a stowaway kitten.

Ramirez guesses the kitten crawled up inside the SUV's undercarriage when he stopped at a convenience store in Ruskin. When Ramirez arrived at the Skyway Sports Complex, nearly 30 miles away, he could hear the kitten, but couldn't find it.

He wasn't about to drive the SUV and risk harming the kitten. But Ramirez didn't have a clue how to find the feline.

Wondering if this qualified as a true emergency, he finally dialed the fleet management emergency line.

Luckily, Perea, an admitted animal lover with two dogs and two cats at home, was on duty. And, as far as Perea was concerned, this was not only an emergency, it was a matter of life or death or, in this case, one of nine lives.

When he told Ramirez he was on his way to the sports complex, he had no idea how much of a challenge he'd just agreed to take on.

When Perea arrived at the Skyway Sports Complex, he also could hear the meow and traced the sound to the area beneath the engine compartment. But, like Ramirez, Perea saw no sign of a cat.

He took off the headlights. Then he pried off the bumper. Finally, he went to work removing the fender, essentially dismantling the front end of the SUV.

"Luckily, I saw a glimpse of color looking at me — eyes,'' he said.

But he still couldn't reach the kitten. He continued the hot, sweaty task of removing SUV parts.

He was determined to dismantle the entire Ford Escape, if necessary. Fortunately, that extreme wasn't necessary. With assorted car parts strewn in the parking lot around him, the kitten was finally within his grasp.

He put on a work glove and, with the help of another employee, Perea fished the kitten from beneath the engine.

Despite the ordeal it had just endured, the kitten seemed to be no worse for wear.

"He looked OK, very small and scared,'' Perea said.

So, what do you do with a kitten that still has eight lives?

As far as Perea was concerned, there was only one option. He took the kitten home with him.

A veterinarian gave the kitten, estimated to be about 6 weeks old, a clean bill of health, and now the resilient ball of fur is a member of the Perea menagerie.

"The guy's a little survivor," Perea said.