Cats and Cars: Nara's Near-Death Experience

Hi, I'm Dr. Maja! Read my introduction to learn more about me and Miki, the kitten who made me a cat person.

Since having Miki as a kitten, I've always been paranoid about cars. I would check under the hood and make noise before I left the house to make sure that Miki wouldn't be anywhere near. But he's never shown any intention of going below a car or trying to hide underneath the hood. Even for the first year of his life, every time I had visitors, I would check their cars before I would let them go, or I would make sure that I could clearly see Miki or his GPS location. And I started having the same approach when it came to the two new kittens, Minnie and Nara. But one of my worst nightmares came true, and I learned another shocking lesson.

Never Up to Any Good

Nara and Minnie have been going outside for the last month on and off. It's really just a few hours every day, with them having continuous access to the indoors whenever they want to come in to eat or rest. Nara is very fearful and cautious, and she will come back in much more often than Minnie will. And it seems like Nara must have had some experience with cars before as she's already shown intent to run underneath my parked car. Minnie, on the other hand, is completely clueless about cars, and she will even try to jump in the back seat and play when I'm cleaning the car.

A Day Like Any Other

Last week, I drove to my neighbor's house, which is around 2000 feet away, to collect a few things. I did the usual checks before I left. I looked underneath the car and checked the cats’ GPS app on my phone. Both kittens were showing as being inside the house, and I didn't see them outside anyway, but I left the window open so they could explore, as it was a beautiful sunny day. So I started the car and slowly drove off. I got to the neighbor's house, which is very close by, though it was more convenient to take the car this time, and parked next to his car with his five herding dogs waiting. His dogs are not fond of cats as they have never lived with one. As soon as I parked, they were very calm but showed a strange interest around the back of my car and then the neighbor's car. I didn't think much of it. I went inside, sat down, and experienced the biggest scare ever.

The Scare of My Life

The GPS app sent a notification that Nara had left my home fence and entered the neighbor's yard. I immediately ran outside, puzzled and shocked, and tried to understand what had happened. I realized she must have gone underneath the hood and driven with me to the neighbor's house. My biggest fear was whether she got injured or worse. I started to use the app to track her in real time to see where she was. At the same time, I immediately checked underneath the car and popped the hood, but she wasn't there. The dogs were still sniffing around the neighbor's car, and I asked the neighbor to take them away so they wouldn't harm Nara if she were somewhere underneath. But she wasn't there. I used the GPS tracker to initiate a sound and realized the cat was on the roof of the shed just above the cars. She was so scared and stressed that she was barely moving.

A Rescue Mission

She made a very tiny squeak when I called her name but refused to move. I was beside myself. The neighbor's dogs, if they were to see her, would most definitely try and attack or kill her. I urged the neighbor to go as far with the dogs as possible. I got a ladder and slowly climbed to Nara, holding a big towel so I could cover her with something. She's a very skittish cat at the best of times, and it took her almost two months to trust me, so I was worried that she was not going to let me come close in this stressful situation and that she would run off and hide. But I climbed up the ladder, talking to her in a very gentle voice, and was able to just pick her up and wrap her in the towel. The poor thing didn't even try to move but was making very sullen meows. I took her straight to my car and we went back home. She didn't even move from the towel. As soon as we were back inside, I offered her some food, but she hid in her favorite spot behind the kitchen sink. It took her around 20 minutes to finally start to behave more like herself.

Lesson Learned

Soon enough, she ate some food and lay down on her bed as if nothing had happened. I experienced such a fright that I had to rethink how I am going to look after her in the coming months and years, because any potential car that comes and parks at my house could take her even further from my home, not to mention she could get seriously injured. She was very lucky that the neighbor's dogs didn't catch up to her and that she had the skill to quickly climb up out of their reach.

The lesson I learned is to be prepared for everything. Before leaving the house, I need to actually see the kittens and offer them food to keep them away from the car for those few minutes. Making a bit of noise and checking under the hood is also something I have now implemented. I am just so grateful that she had her GPS tracker on, as otherwise, I may not have found her. Either way, as stressful and shocking as it was, I also realized that she does know how to take care of herself, which is very important where we live. And she seems to have gained enough trust in me to allow me to pick her up in such a frightening situation in order to help her. My only hope is that we’ll never experience anything like this again.