Collect of cat Jacob,6, from Kilmarnock, who survived despite spending six days in the grill of a Hyundai car and making an 80 mile round trip. A miracle cat has survived after being trapped in a car grill for nine days and driven around 80 miles. See CENTRE PRESS story CPCAT. Sharon Stirling's beloved moggy Jacob escaped the traumatic ordeal with just a bruised nose -- despite being trapped without food or water for nine days. The 49-year-old was devastated after thinking she had lost her cat Jacob -- who she says never leaves home -- and even started making posters to try and find him. But little did she know the seven-year-old black and white cat had been stuck in the grill of her dad's car the whole time. Sharon, who lives in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire had swapped cars with her dad Alex, 75 for the day on July 23 after he had a hernia op and couldn't drive. She says Jacob must have jumped into the grill of her dad's car before she took it to work the following day and then stayed in there for nine days. (SWNS)
There’s a cat in Scotland that will have you believing it has nine lives after it spent nine days stuck in a very precarious place.
Jacob’s owner Sharon Stirling had been searching for him for over a week when she got a call from her father that he’d found him behind the grille of his Hyundai SUV.
Jacob only suffered a bruised nose and dehydration. (SWNS)
Stirling had borrowed the car from her dad for a couple of days and she told SWNS that she figures Jacob slipped inside while it was at her house.
Cats and other animals often slip into the engine bays of parked cars to warm up.
A relieved Sharon Stirling and her cat Jacob. (SWNS)
Jacob wasn’t just sitting in the driveway all that time, either. During the ordeal, her father took the car on an 80-mile trip from his home in Kilmarnock to see a friend in Girvan on the Scottish coast.
Since he parks the car with the front facing a wall, he didn’t notice or hear Jacob in it, but did say that there had been other cats hanging around the vehicle in the driveway, which he thought was odd. It was only when he approached the car in a grocery store parking lot that he spotted the cat behind the grille, not knowing it was Jacob.
Minor damage possibly caused by Jacob can be seen on the car's radiator. (SWNS)
After the discovery, he brought the vehicle to a vet’s office, but the staff there couldn’t figure out how to free Jacob. Finally realizing whose cat it was, he called his daughter and they drove to a Hyundai dealership, where technicians pried the front bumper open and let him loose.
Amazingly, the only injury Jacob sustained was a bruised nose. He also lost about two pounds and was dehydrated, but was apparently able to sustain himself on rainwater.