22 thoughts on “Cold weather tip”

  1. …and, if you do find a cat trying to keep warm in your car…if at all possible, give the poor cat a chance to keep warm in your home, instead….

    b&

  3. The good news: I haven’t owned a car for fifteen years and probably never will again.

    The bad news: The reason I can’t drive is because I had a fatal accident as a result of an epileptic seizure and the state of Illinois (because I was not diagnosed until after the accident) carries it in their books as “drug related”. They are keeping me from getting a drivers’ license in any other state because of their wrongful accusation. I will probably never have a car in which for a cat to hide. Meanwhile, I cuddle my two cats who never have to get near a car.

    1. “a car in which for a cat to hide.”
      A brave attempt to avoid a final preposition, but unnecessary and alas, unsuccessful because “which” and “for” fight for the same role.

      “a car in which a cat may hide” and the rather antique “a car wherein a cat may hide” work but lack the sense of purpose. (I’m sure Jerry would agree that cat-concealment is the main purpose of cars.) For that, “a car for a cat to hide in” is perfectly correct and I can’t think of a more elegant formulation.

      Condolances to you and your cats on your loss of a car. A friend was diagnosed with diabetes in the same way, but he had the good fortune to wake up in his car in a hedge.

  5. Ugh. Not an experience I wish to repeat. In my instance the poor kitteh was already dead from exposure and couldn’t move. On brutal days I always lift my hood and check. The newer cars don’t have room for cats in the engine compartment much less a hand and a wrench.

  6. Golly yes, check everywhere, and on top of wheels as in the picture. And in hot weather in the shade of back wheels. I had never heard of them getting inside the engine area, though. Don’t they scramble out again when the engine starts?

  7. My car is only 4 years old and the cat can go right in there and get on top of the engine very easy. Always know where the cat is before getting in……

  9. I had the regrettable experience of killing a friend’s Siamese kitten in this manner: I had been visiting him in cold weather and neither one of us noticed that it had somehow slipped outside when I came in. After that, I always pounded the hood of my truck when getting into it.

    The picture of the cat on the tire reminded me of when I was running tree planting crews in Louisiana, accompanied by my two cats, of course, who lived with me in my tiny camper trailer. Some new workers from Minnesota showed up at our campsite and the first thing they did was to release three huge, half-wild d*&gs who rampaged through our camp, pissing on everything. I thought, “Uh-Oh; these animals look like they’d LOVE to chase a cat- I wonder where mine are?” One of the dogs walked along the side of my pickup, sniffing- when it got to the front tire, a cat’s paw appeared from under the fender and gave it a good scratch on the nose, at which it yelped and ran off!

  10. OT for this topic but I thought everyone would want to know that Jerry’s Albatross, now “Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible,”
    is available for pre-order on Amazon.com http://tinyurl.com/pgm9mj9 and scheduled for publication on 3/19/15. I’ve pre-ordered the Kindle edition and the rest of you can order it Kindle or paper as you prefer. I suspect an Audible version may be in the works too.

  11. Back in the sixties, a neighbor’s cat Bonner climbed into his person’s engine compartment. When the person later got in and started the car, the cat got caught in fan or belt and had to have much of its tail amputated and three legs set in plaster cast. The family would carry Bonner into the shade of a small tree when he could survey his world. Amazingly he managed to catch a bird flying low over his head. Quite a cat.

  12. Where I live a cats life would end due to owls and coyotes long before cold. Still it is 10F this morning: any domesticated animal should be inside or their owners exmained for psychological problems.

  13. Years ago my sister started up her car at twenty minus and just caught out the corner of her eye her cat streaking off. She didn’t think anything about it until she got home and saw the blood. She followed the trail until it ended but couldn’t find the cat.
    There was much sadness and feelings of guilt at home for the nest two weeks when, who should show up with a meeowr, much attenuated by the missing half of her face. She lived happily for another ten years. The squirrels and birds were happy too since, lacking binocular vision, she wasn’t so good at hunting anymore.

  14. I’ve never had a cat in the car but I do seem to have a spider that lives in the passenger side mirror.

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