The car owner heard a faint mewing near his car's bonnet. (Representational Pic)
A man from Mumbai was stunned when he discovered a cat and her four newborn kittens ensconced inside his car's engine cavity after he used the vehicle for one whole day.
None of the furry animals had suffered any injuries, said an animal rescuer who pulled out the cat and its day-old litter from the car.
Chembur resident Aniket Bhondve heard faint mewing near his car's bonnet on Monday morning but mistook the soft sound to be coming from outside, said animal rescuer Rajesh Mahadik.
After driving his car between Panvel, on the outskirts of Mumbai, and Chembur, Bhondve returned home in the evening, once again encountering the soft mew that he had come across earlier.
He opened the car bonnet and was shocked to find an adult cat and four kittens inside the engine compartment, said Mahadik.
Mahadik, a volunteer of animal welfare NGO Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW), said Bhondve sought his help fearing that he might be attacked by the adult cat if he attempted to rescue them.
The mother and tiny moggies were later safely extricated from the vehicle by Mahadik and another rescuer, Siddhant Dhanawade.
According to Mahadik, the cat most probably had given birth inside the engine cavity.
After the recue, the mother ran away from the spot. "Maybe because she had not had anything the whole day," he said.
The rescuers, now faced with the challenge of reuniting the kittens with their mother, placed the young ones in a basket and kept it in an open space near the car. A camera trap was also set up to track the mother cat's movement.
The feline came back the next day in the afternoon and took two of her newborn kittens with her. She again returned in the evening and went away with the remaining two kittens, said Mahadik.
Pawan Sharma, founder and president of RAWW, said that due to urbanisation and construction, animals like cats do not get enough natural places.
During winters, they find space in cars where they can get warmth due to the engine. "Something of that sort must have happened in this case too," he added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)