Taxi driver finds kitten inside car grille after driving hundreds of miles
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wale ... e-27543349
A long-distance taxi driver has shared his shock at finding a tiny kitten inside his engine following a 500-mile shift. Tom Hutchings, who owns Tommy's Taxis in Tonyrefail, said he made the discovery at around 12pm on Tuesday after driving to Bristol Airport, Llanelli, Cardiff and Treherbert.
When he returned home to Tonyrefail he said his fiancée Lauren Lewis noticed a bright pink nose in the grille of his car. He said he was startled when he peered in and saw two big eyes staring back at him.
The 32-year-old said: "She told me there was something in the front of my car and pointed. I had a little look inside and I couldn't see anything at first, then my nose was practically against my car as I was trying to look. Suddenly my nose and the kitten's nose were more or less touching. It meowed and I jumped and did a roly poly backwards."
Once he regained composure, Tom said he used tools to open up his car so he could lift the kitten out. He said: "I'm not the most experienced person with tools so I got my Christmas cracker tools from the shed to take the front off my car and I got the cat out. It was tiny and fitted in my two hands. It must have been exhausted, it was freaking out at first but then it fell asleep straight away on the way to the vet."
At the vets Tom said he was advised to put up a social media post in an attempt to find the kitten's family. It didn't take long before the relieved owners came forward to claim the kitten - a female cat called Gizmo who had been missing from Miskin for a week.
Tom said: "I took it to the vet and they told me to put it online, which I had already done. Later the vet informed us that it had come from Miskin which is about seven or eight miles up the road. The vet couldn't give me any more details about the family because of data protection, so we left our post online to try and find them and then the owner messaged me directly. She sent me a long message saying she was so thankful that we found her. She had been missing for a week so I think they had lost hope."
Although Tom had driven a long way that day, he said he has no idea how, when or where the kitten got into his car as he hadn't been in Miskin. He said: "I don't think it could have been in my car all that time, but I don't know when or where it got in because I haven't been to Miskin.
"That day I was in Bristol Airport at 2am, I was in Llanelli at 6am, then Cardiff Airport and Treherbert. I had done maybe 500 miles that day - she's probably the first passenger I've had who hasn't paid me! If that cat was in the car for the whole 500 miles it would blow my mind. Poor thing only has eight lives left now."
A huge animal lover, Tom said driving will never quite be the same again after this. He said: "Over the last two days every time I've stopped my car I've walked around to the front of my car to check it hasn't happened again. I'm never going to be able to drive a car again without listening out for animal noises."
