Police Nab The Purrpatrator

[j]

Glad they got her out unharmed

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local...dy/1813361.aspx

Stowaway kitten taken into custody

BY LISA MARTIN

27 Apr, 2010 08:37 AM

Cartwright the runaway kitten is back in police custody after surviving two hours trapped in the engine of a Sydney highway patrol car.

Senior-Constable Tex Tannous was reunited with the tiny black ball of fluff at a western Sydney vet clinic yesterday, three days after rescuing her.

Police nicknamed the four-week-old kitten Cartwright after the avenue and suburb where her ordeal began on Friday.

Now they are appealing for her owners to come forward, but haven't ruled out the possibility that Cartwright was a stray on the run when she hitched a ride with the cops.

For Senior-Constable Tannous, it turned into a real puss in bonnet saga.

He said he was ridiculed by colleagues when he first told them a kitten was trapped in his car.

He'd been driving along Cartwright Avenue, at Cartwright, when the kitten dashed in front of the vehicle, forcing him to brake hard.

''I pulled over ... I couldn't locate it. I was walking around, I could hear it, but I couldn't find the little sucker,'' he said as he cradled Cartwright in his arms yesterday.

Senior-Constable Tannous said that at first he thought the cat had dashed to safety, but heard meowing about two hours later while setting up a random breath test site.

He said he immediately made sure the engine was turned off.

''The car was getting hot sitting there ... we didn't want fried cat in the engine,'' he said, grimacing as Cartwright dug her claws into his shirt.

Colleagues initially thought he was playing a practical joke.

''I said 'I've got a bit of a problem, there's a cat in my engine'. They looked at me funny. I don't think they believed me,'' he said.

After a good laugh, supervisor Sergeant Adrian Grech took a second look under the vehicle.

''We saw the fur poking out of a little drain hole,'' Sergeant Grech said.

''We poked it and it meowed.

''She was in there for a good two hours.''

The vehicle was put on a platform at a nearby mechanics shop, and the front bumper was removed to reveal the terrified, but uninjured, kitten.

Senior-Constable Tannous laughed off a suggestion he'd said, ''Police, come out with your paws up!''

''She was really frightened and didn't want to come out,'' he said.

AAP

[nellbell]

aaawww how cute, maybe little Cartwright will become a police mascot...