A stray kitten is recuperating after spending two days stuck in the engine of car that made a 1,000-mile drive from Oregon to Southern California.
Julia Di Sieno, who has been rescuing animals for 30 years, answered the driver’s call to rescue the kitten in Santa Barbara, Calif.
Di Sieno said that the driver heard the stray's cries when she left Oregon, but she continued with her journey, unsure of what to do. The kitten, according to Di Sieno, “was probably orphaned or lost. He was cold in Oregon and crawled into an engine compartment just seeking a warm spot.”
When she reached the car, Di Sieno could not find the kitten but could hear his cries, so she called Chuck Love of Santa Barbara’s Love Towing for assistance.
The liberators ran into trouble when the kitten – only weeks old and reasonably spooked – evaded their attempts to rescue him from the Honda Fit.
Di Sieno then managed to sedate the kitten, which she said, “made it easier to wiggle him through the engine’s small compartments.”
After an hour and a half of trying, Di Sieno was finally able to pull the feline from the car and into her arms.
She decided to name the cat "Love" after the tow-truck driver who assisted her.
"He didn’t even charge us – just did it as a good Samaritan," she said.
Di Sieno is taking care of Love, who is healthy and now weighs over one pound, as he awaits adoption.