Quick Take
- An engine bay is the perfect hideout for a cold cat, but a parking lot has one trait that makes it irresistible. See why engines attract cats →
- Kittens need a temperature that almost nowhere outdoors can offer in November.
- The warmth that draws cats in comes with a deadly catch. Learn the deadly catch →
- One scheduled appointment made the difference between a happy ending and a tragedy. See how the kittens survived →
Patrick Long had a simple job in front of him on Monday morning: an oil change on a TV station’s vehicle. He opened the hood and found two kittens looking back at him.
The vehicle belonged to WKRG News 5 reporter Christina J. Harris, who had dropped it off at Gipson’s Tire and Auto in Mobile, Alabama. Long found the pair in the engine compartment, which is not the first time he has popped a hood and met a cat.
“I have found several cats in cars. Mostly good outcomes. And one that didn’t make it, but most of the ones I found made it,” Long told WKRG.
Why the Engine Bay
Long knows what draws them in. “They just try to get out of the woods, especially on these cold nights. They try to get in the warmth. And what better place to get a warm vehicle,” he said.
A cat’s body runs warmer than ours, and vets generally treat anything below 45 degrees as too cold for one to be outside. Young kittens need to be kept in a space held at 85 to 90 degrees for their first six to eight weeks, which is warmer than almost anywhere outdoors in November.
An engine that has been running all day is the closest thing to that in a parking lot. It’s dark, it’s enclosed, it’s off the ground and out of the wind, and it holds heat for hours after the key comes out. Small cats in particular take shelter under vehicles and up near the engine when the temperature drops, and a person walking out to their car has no reason to look.
Kittens need to be in 85- to 90-degree heat for the first 6-8 weeks of their lives.
©beton studio/Shutterstock.com
The Part That Doesn’t Always End Well
The warmth comes with a catch, and Long’s “one that didn’t make it” is what the catch looks like. A cat still curled in the engine bay when the key turns can be badly hurt or killed by the running engine, or fall and get caught in a wheel.
What saved these two was the appointment itself. The hood came up in a workshop with the engine cold and a mechanic standing over it, instead of on a cold morning with somebody turning the key.
Long is taking both kittens home.
