Houdini

Last Friday, after watching the Red Bull Air Show from the comfort of my office overlooking the Corniche, I drove home to take care of a few loads of laundry - before having to pick up clients arriving that evening at the airport. But as luck would have it, I parked my car right next to a small, red, VW, Polo housing a loud, distressed, kitten in its engine. I tried to coax the tiny fellow out but he would have nothing to do with me.

Seeing me peering in at him through the grill of the car, he dug in deeper into the engine and all I could think of was that the owner of the red Polo was going to turn the engine on and cream this little fellow. His mother was nowhere in site. From the kids in the area, I found out that he had been at it for at least two days - engines was his specialty.

Nothing I did seemed to work, and I tried for a good half hour and in the end I gave up and called Anita and Colin from Feline Friends and left them a message with the kitten’s high-pitched distressed calls filtering in onto their voice mail. It wasn’t long before they called back and came out to his rescue; nets, cages, cool heads and ready to do whatever it took to get this little guy out, short of tearing the tires off the car.

Three hours into the attempted rescue and the little guy remained elusive. The moment he made eye contact with any of us, even if hunger and the smell of food brought him out from the “security” of the engine and near the cage for a moment, he would wobble his way back up into the engine.

Dusk was setting in and we all toyed with the idea that perhaps we might let this one go. Three and a half hours into it and Colin caught sight of him mustering up enough courage to eat the food they had put out, and swiftly, without a second thought, netted him.

It has been a few days now that he is with me, and he’s a different kitten. I’ve named him Houdini – after the famous escape artist. He is happy, healthy and he is giving up his career as an escape artist for the life of an indoor, loved, kitty.

The Beginning.