Unlucky cat rescued from car engine by firefighters

An unlucky cat fell from the second floor of a Worthing block of flats before getting stuck inside the engine of a nearby car – all in the same day. The white cat, named Napoleon, had to be rescued from behind the gearbox of a Peugeot 206 by firefighters on Wednesday lunchtime.

The car's owner Sandra Dudas was visiting her mother who lives in the road. She said: At about 10.30am the cat's owner knocked on the door and said she needed me to move to my car, which I thought was strange.

She said her cat had tumbled out of her window while she was packing to move house. Napoleon landed on the grass outside the flats and then as the owner went to see if he was okay, the cat jumped up into my car under the bonnet."



Mrs Dudas, of Sunningdale Road, Durrington, said she saw Napoleon's head poking out of the bonnet but as they went to pick him up he disappeared under the engine. "We tried everything to coax him out, even tuna," she said. "My husband took the wheel off my car to try and get to the cat. It was drawing quite a crowd and eventually someone called the fire brigade."

Worthing Whitewatch crew used a jack to raise the car up and managed to lift Napoleon, safe and well, out of the engine after the air filter and battery had been removed. Mrs Dudas said the one-and-a-half hour rescue was "quite an episode". She added: "After the firefighters put my car back together again I drove it around the block and all was fine."

Napoleon is now recovering at home. Owner, Angela Atkinson said: “I have one very tired, dirty, hungry cat. He is very shaken and jumpy. I’m just relieved to have him back. He’s very dirty and smells of oil but I might leave it a while before I try and wash him.”

With news video of the rescue.