A driver had kittens on finding his neighbour’s cat under his bonnet after doing the school run.
Four-year-old Rose was discovered when David King, 65, did an oil check after completing his five-mile journey.
Mr King’s wife Tina, 67, said: “I didn’t expect to see two eyes staring back.”
Charity Cats Protection rescued the terrified feline – usually an indoor-only pet – by removing the Vauxhall Astra’s front wheel in Sheerness, Kent.
She was reunited with her owner Allison Webster, 48, who said: “I thought she was asleep in my son’s bedroom. She must have been so afraid.
“Rose is back to galloping around the house as if nothing happened but I’m sure she has used one of her nine lives.”
Recalling the moment her husband discovered the cat, Mrs King said: "He came running in shouting for me to come have a look. I thought whatever's wrong?... We weren't even sure it was alive.
"I gently prodded it with a stick to check it was breathing and saw it was a terrified little cat. It reversed even further into the engine and was stuck.
"I tried to reach it but it was too far down and there wasn't any way I could coax it out."
Kim Braysher, welfare team leader at Cats Protection's Swale Branch, came to Rose's rescue.
She said: "When we opened the bonnet, we saw two wide eyes staring back at us.
"She was understandably frightened and trembling. She must have been petrified all the time the car was driving on the busy school run."
Ms Braysher said they tried to calm Rose but she "backed away, burying herself deeper into the engine cavity".
They then jacked the car up and took off a front wheel off so Ms Braysher could reach in from underneath and was able to free the cat.
Rose had a microchip, and Ms Braysher was able to trace her owner, despite the contact number being out of date, by driving to the registered address which was nearby.
Ms Webster said that Rose appeared unscathed by her ordeal, and that her microchip details have been updated.
