RESCUED: The wee ginger kitty (right) is lucky help was at hand from his new-found friends.
RESCUED: The wee ginger kitty (right) is lucky help was at hand from his new-found friends.
For firefighters, the cliche callout is "cat stuck up tree" - but when the call comes in that there's a kitten stuck in a car engine, they respond with all they've got.
"I've been in the job 31 years and it was probably one the most interesting jobs I've beenon," said Ellerslie station officer Ian Richards after responding to a call for help after a cat was found stuck in a car's engine compartment.
Mr Richards said the kitten was discovered by a woman who had driven about 1km to her local Briscoes store and "luckily" heard meowing coming from under the bonnet.
When she opened the bonnet, she could see a kitten was trapped so called the fire service which sent two trucks.
"At first we thought it was dead, but then we poked it and it moved, thankfully," Mr Richards said.
"It was an interesting one because we had to take apart the motor area bit by bit and then we got it [the kitten] out. Then we put it [the car] back together.
"The kitten was only about as big as your hand."
RESCUED: The wee ginger kitty (right) is lucky help was at hand from his new-found friends.
When the firefighters extracted the kitten from the engine area, after about an hour's work, the crowd that had gathered applauded and "a box appeared from somewhere" and the woman left to take the kitten home.