A car that purrs more than normal

By Janet French, The StarPhoenix From left to right are service technician Nick Pruett, customer Pat Upshall with the newly-named Malibu and mechanic Stephan Detillieux. Upshall asked Pruett to go for a ride with her. After a second ride, he heard the kitten and mechanic Detillieux took off the inside fender cover and retrieved the kitten. Photograph by: Richard Marjan, The StarPhoenix... There are sounds drivers don't expect to hear from under their car hood -- like a cat mewing.
Saskatoon resident Pat Upshall was making her way around town Friday when she heard the sound of a kitten coming from somewhere inside her Chevy Malibu. Upshall does not own a cat.
She pulled over and checked her trunk. Nothing.
She pulled into a gas station, and asked an attendant to listen.
"She says, 'My God. You've got a cat in your car.' "
They opened the hood.
Other gas bar patrons helped search, but they didn't see a cat.
"It's pretty jam packed where the motor is," Upshall said.
Her next stop for help was Sherwood Chevrolet.
After two test drives and one trip up on a mechanical hoist, mechanic Stephan Detillieux and service technician Nick Pruett were stumped.
"By this time, I was really getting upset," Upshall said. "This cat, it could die in there."
She went home and left the car with the dealership.Shortly after, Pruett called. Staff had removed the inside fender and found a kitten inside the left front wheel well. Even after hours of riding around town, the cat was fine.
"It is an adorable little kitten," Upshall said.
She loves cats, but lives in a pet-free condominium, so spontaneous kitty ownership was out of the question.
"I wish I could've."
However, Sherwood employee Tessa Gust took a shining to the kitten, which appears about seven weeks old. Gust named the kitten Malibu, after Upshall's car.
Upshall has no idea where the kitten came from or when it crawled into the wheel well.
The dealership didn't charge Upshall for the animal retrieval, and it even bought her lunch.
Service manager Ted Firman joked that Upshall had received a "free cat scan."
© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix http://www.thestarphoenix.com/that+purrs+more+than+normal/2011498/story.html