Nurse rescues kitten that traveled 40km in a car’s engine compartment

Last Friday, Ida Song, a nurse at the Mikkeli Central Hospital, noticed something flash under a car as she was leaving her workplace’s parking garage. She realised that it was a kitten. Song immediately stopped her car, turned on her hazard lights and got out to call the cat. According to Song, the kitten jumped right into her lap, indicating it wasn’t a feral animal. After some consideration, Song decided to take the kitten to an animal shelter where the kitten curled up on her shoulder and fell asleep.

Marja Mäenpää, an activist from the Mikkeli Animal Protection Association, explains that cats are occasionally found in unusual places because they manage to sneak into car engine compartments and end up being transported unknowingly. This was the case for the kitten Song found. When the owner, Aino Reponen, was located, it turned out that the kitten had travelled 40km to Mikkeli in the engine compartment of a car.

At home, Reponen has a brood of nine-week-old kittens. She never thought one could travel in the engine compartment. Despite stopping for fuel during her journey, the kitten did not jump out. Reponen was able to ask about the kitten at the animal shelter based on an announcement Song had posted on Facebook. Song did not include a picture of the kitten in the announcement, a move appreciated by the animal shelter as it could have led to someone falsely claiming the kitten as their own and selling it for a profit.

Unfortunately, not all stories of feline stowaways end well. In one instance, a kitten that travelled to a shopping mall parking garage had to be euthanised because a rotating belt in the car’s engine had severed its leg. Song has been regularly messaging Reponen about the kitten’s condition and there’s a possibility that Song’s wish to keep the kitten might come true. She mentions, “We are considering whether we should keep it after all.”