Owner finds her cat unharmed under car hood during trip to Lake Country

Jan 6, 2020 | 8:00 AM

Camillia Courts figures her cat Daisy has likely used up three of its nine lives.

Daisy defied the odds and somehow managed to survive a journey inside the engine compartment of Courts’ vehicle as she and her daughter travelled from Vernon to Lake Country on Saturday.

And it was only by coincidence that the journey wasn’t longer — and more perilous — for the five-year old-pet.

Courts says she and her daughter were planning to drive to West Kelowna that day.

“Soon as I hit about Predator Ridge (Bailey Road) my windshield wiper fluid pinged and said I was out of washer fluid. Normally I would never, ever have stopped. I would have just ran it out to the bitter end. But by the time I got to Winfield, it was so sunny I couldn’t see anything, so I stopped at the 7-Eleven and bought washer fluid,” Courts told Vernon Matters.

Courts said when she came back out with the fluid and opened the hood, she found Daisy cuddled up on the edge under the hood.

“I screamed ‘Oh my God!.’ And my cat looks at me, and meows, and jumps out.”

Area under the hood where Daisy was located and managed to avoid injuries (submitted photo/Camillia Courts)

Courts chased her cat around the parking lot before finally grabbing her, and they decided to take Daisy back home to Vernon.

“She got in the car. She was super chill. She cuddled up in my daughter’s lap and was like, here for the ride,” she said.

Courts and her 10-year-old daughter, Layla, couldn’t believe it was their cat.

“We have two cats. One is a strictly outdoor cat, and the other is a strictly indoor cat, so this is our indoor cat who is never outside. I don’t even know when or how she got out.”

Courts expected Daisy to have some damage from riding in the engine area.

“I just assumed she would be covered in burns and she is going to be horribly hurt and bleeding, and she is 100 per cent fine. No burns, no scratches, nothing.”

Courts says the cat was in a safer, more protected area under the hood.

“It’s completely unsafe obviously, but I would say, she was in one of the more safer areas, and she was actually well protected where she was, not near a fan or the heat,” she said.

Daisy the cat is comforted by Layla Courts on way back to Vernon after her ordeal in the engine compartment. (submitted/Camillia Courts)

Courts calls Daisy “a miracle cat.”

“I think so, but I would also say she probably lost at least three lives on that. She may be down to six lives now,” Courts said with a laugh.

Courts says she plans to regularly check under her car’s hood from now on, just to see if Daisy is planning to hitch another ride.

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