Gizmo the kitten ‘travelled 500 miles’ trapped behind taxi driver’s car grille
A taxi driver was shocked to find an adorable kitten stuck behind his car grille after driving more than 500 miles that day.
Tom Hutching, from Tonyrefail, Wales had just finished a 12-hour shift, which had taken him to Bristol Airport, Llanelli, Cardiff and Treherbert, when he made the discovery.
He believes the cat, called Gizmo, had been there all day or possibly even several days as she had been missing for a week.
Tom, who runs Tommy’s Taxi’s, said it was around 2pm on August 15 when his partner, who was driving in front of him turned a corner, looked back and suddenly appeared alarmed.
‘I saw her freak out. I thought my car was on fire. I pulled over and went to have a look at what it was,’ he said.
‘The cat was black so I didn’t see it at first. When she turned her head round to me I jumped a mile and fell backwards.
‘I got my tool box out and got my bumper off of my car. The cat was freaking out but I did what I had to do and picked her up out of the grille.
‘I got her into the passenger seat of the car and she fell asleep within seconds. Completely conked out. She must’ve been exhausted bless her.’
Tom drove the cat to a local vet who said she was healthy and had a microchip.
It turned out her owners lived in Miskin in Wales, seven miles from Tom’s home, where he had not picked up from in several weeks.
Tom said: ‘I have no idea how she ended up there. There’s no hole under the grille or anything.
‘My presumption is that she had gotten in there the same day. It had been one of those days where I had been driving for hours on end and done at least 500 miles.
‘For all I know she had only been in there ten minutes but she probably could have been there for a year and I wouldn’t have known because I would never think to check there.
‘Now every time I pass my car I look behind the grille just in case.’
Gizmo’s grateful owners reached out to Tom several days after the incident to give their thanks.
They told him Gizmo was back at home getting lots of attention.
Meanwhile, a rather more terrifying discovering was made by a woman in Queensland, Australia.
She found a 1.5m carpet python curled up behind a painting in her living room.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.