Car Engines-Winter Danger for Outside Cats and Wildlife

When winter winds begin to blow, outside cats and small wildlife begin to hunt for warm places to curl up in that gets them out of the weather. A parked car with a warm engine is a perfect spot in the mind of a cold animal. It's a good idea to check before you start up your car's engine just in case an animal is sleeping under the hood.

Cats and kittens are killed or severely injured every year when a car's engine is started up while they are still under the hood of the car. If you live in a neighborhood with outdoor cats roaming around or if you know there's stray cats or a feral colony close by, it's a good idea to open up the hood and look inside, pound on the hood and listen for signs of life before getting into the car or honk the horn a couple of time and wait 10 seconds or so before you start up to give a sleeping cat a chance to wake up and escape. Even if you don't have outside cats around, it's still a good idea to pound on the hood or honk your horn just in case a squirrel or any other critter is hiding under the hood.

Small wild animals like squirrels, snakes, rats, mice, possum, raccoons, and chipmunks will also snuggle up inside your engine. You may not think it's necessary to check your engine before starting up, but if there is an animal in the engine area, what you find after raising the hood may not be a pretty sight if a cat, kitten or other small animal has been hit with the fan, caught in the fan belt or burned from the engine.

Kittens, cats and small animals will hide also hide in one of the wheel wells of a car. I had a friend who lived in the country. One morning she arrived at work just a head of me. As I pulled into the parking lot next to her car, I saw a kitten fall out of one of the wheel wells. As it turned out, there were 3 kittens that had ridden into town that morning in one of the wheel wells.

Car engines are a great place in the mind of cat. If they've climbed under the hood shortly after you turned it off, there's heat and it's out of the wind and weather. They don't know their shelter is dangerous. It only takes a few extra minutes to check before you start the car and the time you take can save the life of a cat.

To help keep cats and other small animals from getting under the hood of your car, the best thing you can do is keep your car in a garage and make sure the garage doors are kept shut to keep animals out. Although, cats still have a way of getting into places they aren't suppose to be in. If you don't have a garage, there's not much you can do to keep them out. Animals get into the engine by crawling in underneath the car. However, one suggestion to try and keep cats out of your engine is to provide a proper shelter that's warm and dry.

Cats and other small animals will also hide in the engine of a car or the wheel well to escape a predator even during warm weather. If you turn on your car and hear a sound that doesn't sound right coming from your engine, turn the car off and check under the hood. A mechanic friend once told me drivers could minimize injuries to an animal by paying attention to unusual noises right after starting up their car and if they notice a strange smell, especially if it smells like burning hair. Stop the car, turn off the engine and check it out. When you try to start the engine and it doesn't want to turn over, that can also be a clue there could be an animal inside.

If you do find a cat or other wildlife under the hood, be careful trying to remove the animal. Wild animals should be dealt with by an animal control profession to avoid injuring the animal or injuring yourself. If a cat has been hurt or burned, please do the right thing and get them medical help as soon as you can.

Animals are just trying to do the best they can to survive winter's cold and any warm and dry place is acceptable to them. If you have an outside cat, the safest place for them is inside, especially during the winter months.

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