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Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Two true stories

My mother returned to the work force when I was in seventh grade. I estimate that was 1956-ish. I added enough years to my birth date to come up with that, and subtracted some years from when I graduated, and both answers were close. So, I picked 1956-ish. No matter which I do, that makes my sister very young. Mom going back to work changed her life. Another story.

For a long time mom worked in an insurance office. Now she had stories to tell at the supper table. Exactly one of those tales stuck with me, the cat story. It's not great, and you may want to skip the next paragraph. Sadly, it's the core of the story.

One cold winter day the family cat of the insured crawled up under the hood of the family car, curled up on the warm engine block, and settled in for a good night's sleep. Dad started the car the next morning and the fan blade put the cat though the radiator and generally in bits all under the hood. Enough of that.

Now it's 2020, the year without end. My friend Ann in Wisconsin calls me about once a week. Checking up. Remember the week at Thanksgiving I was not answering my malfunctioning phone and the chain of phone calls sent my neighbor Cathy over to knock, first on my window, then on my door?

Once when Ann called and we were exchanging a week of news she suddenly gasped, and told me what she just happened to see from her kitchen window. One of the stray cats they've taken in this winter climbed a tire and disappeared under the hood of her car. Enterprising fellow, warm engine blocks beat cat igloos on the porch, paws down.

I told her the cat story. On her way back to the kennel after lunch, Ann called me and told me she'd opened her hood before leaving and eventually got the cat gone at the end of her snow brush. From Ann, that's a major threat.

One warm day in Wisconsin, at the end of last week, Ann called me. She was laughing too much almost to not speak. "You'll never believe! I'm on my road, just left my drive, and I heard such a thunk! What did I hit? I looked in the mirror for something flattened in the road, and there is Lonzo (all their cats have a "Z" in their name), high tailing it back to the house! First day I have not chased him off the engine. I didn't look because it's so warm today!"

At work she parked the car, a late model Ford mid-size, opened the hood and looked. The next time we chatted, she told me she could see Lonzo's escape route, from the warm bed to the cold road. Such a cat. With luck he learned a lesson. However, the neuter fee may not be wasted.

I perused the internet to understand the current configuration under the average car's hood. Nothing like they looked when I was a teen. There are no exposed moving parts I could see, and certainly not a fan blade. Thanks to Lonzo for a story I forgot half a century ago.


At the old house, mom and a pair named Toe-Toe and No-Toe. By the time she'd worked back to the crossword mom generally had relinquished her cereal bowl to the cats. I call this picture "Breakfast with Mom".


 

36 comments:

  1. enjoyed today's blog!! I don't have to check the car's engine since there aren't any outdoor cats around here!! If the squirrels try this I will be happy to have them decapitated or whatever...

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  2. Ouch. I am glad that Lonzo escaped hopefully with lesson learned.
    We get stories every year of people finding snakes have made a home in their engines - and slither up and into the car.
    Breakfast with Mom looks familiar. Though breakfast with Dad here culminated in him pushing fingers of toast (with vegemite) out the window to the cat waiting on the sill. The cat who had only just gone outside.

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  3. Oh my! Glad that Lonzo did not suffer the fate of that earlier cat. How Gruesome!

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  4. Oh my, what a story! We have a neighborhood cat that likes to sleep under my car so I always rev the engine a bit before I back up. The "Breakfast with Mom" picture is great. One of my cats waits patiently each morning for me to finish my cereal. That morning taste of milk is special.

    I have to ask - was No-Toe missing a toe? ; )

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    1. No. Toe=Toe had an extra dew claw. It was the only way I could tell them apart. Our brother could, though.

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  5. Memories are funny things the way they just pop up out of nowhere. Here's hoping that Lonzo learned his lesson and will reform his ways.

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  6. Our current cat has no tail due to climbing up under a warm car. We never found out whose vehicle it was or what exactly happened, but the vet let us know that was her best guess at what had happened according to his injuries. A previous cat of ours always waited at my feet for me to be finished my cereal and to drink the leftover milk. -Jenn

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  7. We lost a kitten last year to this same senario... DH and I both cried. We always check... and have missed appointments when we couldn't get them out. This time we thought all had left, but when the car started, one small kitten fell out - not sure how he died, there was no blood. But we now have a sign on inside of front door to remind us and grandson to check both car and truck before starting engine.

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  8. Hari OM
    Nope, car engines are exactly zero what they were when we could do our own tinkering. Now you need a degree. But at least cats are relatively safe. YAM xx

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  9. Joanne, I am quite sure you could tell a story about the dishes drying in the sink and make it whimsical and interesting. You do have a way with words.

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  10. pretty horrible first story. poor cat and oh what a mess. I don't worry about cats on engine blocks here because it never gets that cold. but I think my cat has, at least, learned her lesson. since I finally started letting her out the garage door again, I never see her on the driveway anymore.

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  11. Oh yes, the horrors of cats curling up on warm engine blocks or near block heaters is a hazard in any cold-weather country. Some people always knock on their car hoods before driving off, just in case.

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  12. Cats do like warm places and I have heard similar stories to the one you've told. My late husband once drove off to work with our dog riding on the back bumper of his work van. He couldn't see him and couldn't figure out why everyone was honking and pointing. (the dog miraculously stayed on and was fine)

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  13. Our local pet rescuer (is that a word even) told me of how one of the cats they now own rode inside her boyfriends car all the way from Wichita. About 50 miles away. Good thing we don't have those exposed fan blades anymore.

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  14. Cats and car engines - I had no idea.

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  15. I've heard of cats getting into engines for the warmth, but never heard of one being "blenderised". Poor cat. I haven't seen the inside workings of a car engine in 30 years.

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  16. When we lived in San Diego, our neighbor's cat did exactly that -- crawled up inside the car and laid down under the hood. Said neighbor started the engine and heard the most horrendous screech--luckily he shut the engine down right away and lifted the hood. The cat jumped out -- shaken, but o.k. Needless to say, the cat never did that again!

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  17. A car pulled up at my yard a few years ago and a rabbit hopped out from beneath the engine compartment. It may have had a long walk home.

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  18. I've heard of that happening but, thankfully, have no experience of it.

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  19. My next door neighbor once inadvertently injured a cat starting her car. It was a feral young one and the poor thing lost its leg but my neighbor adopted her and the cat lived a happy life.
    I love the picture of your mom and Toe-Toe and No-Toe.

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  20. Oh boy, that poor cat. One time one of our dogs escaped and threw himself on to the roof of my car as I pulled out of our driveway and on to a busy road. He clung to the top of the windshield until I could safely pull over. And escort him into the car.
    XO
    WWW

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  21. In the UK Esso used to say "Put a tiger in your tank"

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  22. And a similar story happened in my family with a cat that managed to "hold-on" until my daughter got to her work at which point Spot (the cat) had to be carried yowling and boo-hooing all the way to the store (where daughter worked). Not hurt but an experience that made us all check under the hood for many years.

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  23. My car has remained mostly in the garage these last nine months. I had to have it inspected recently and the mechanic told me that mice had made nests in my engine. Better mice than cats. I have given that thought as Retired Man often leaves the garage door open and the ferals sometimes stroll inside.

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  24. So the cats are safe now, Joanne?

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  25. What a great story. I worked in a tow yard once, and happened to open a hood. Underneath was a small possum who bared his teeth and hissed at me. Boy did I close that hood gently. LOL Happy new year to you, Toby, and your family. It sure has too be better.

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  26. I have driven cats to work with me on the engine! Martha, the boy cat, has a good healthy fear of anything with an engine to this day. I think it must have been the front end loader scooping him up and dumping him!

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  27. We had that happen to a kitten we had. It was not as severely injured as your story, but bad enough.

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  28. We had mice nesting in the car, only noticed when the car did not start. All good wishes for the New Year Joanne and keep your cat safe. X

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  29. If cats aren't napping on the engine block, they're sitting calmly underneath a car, oblivious to the possibility of it suddenly driving off. Or else they're hurtling across a road, narrowly escaping oncoming cars. They must be relying on their nine lives to keep them safe.

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  30. I'm glad it's warm here in Hawaii. We have a lot of stray cats and I'm happy I don't have to watch to make sure they're not in the car somewhere trying to keep warm.

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  31. My little Auto-Kitty was found underneath the hood of a car. Luckily she cried enough to be noticed.

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