Firefighter rescues Smokey the kitten and gives him a new home

A firefighter says he is delighted to have adopted a kitten he helped rescue, despite the feline having a bit of attitude.

Gary Hughes, 47, was one of several crew members called to reports of a trapped kitten in a car in Hornsea, East Yorkshire, on 26 February.

He said the kitten, now named Smokey, had given them all the "absolute runaround" before a colleague, Steve, managed to grab him and hold him aloft like a scene from The Lion King.

"He then proceeded to wee all over Steve and claw him to death," he added.

When they arrived at the scene, Hughes said they could hear miaowing coming from the engine compartment of a car.

"I managed to get sight of him, and then he just kept running backwards and forwards inside the compartment and then going underneath the plastic skirting," he said.

At one point, Hughes said he managed to get hold of the kitten, but it wriggled free.

"And then we didn't hear from him again for about 20 minutes."

The firefighters then discovered the cat had sneaked past all of them and climbed into the engine of another car.

"So, we popped [open] the bonnet on that, and there he was."

Hughes, who described the kitten as "so small and lovely", said he decided on the spot he wanted to adopt him, but had to wait to see if he belonged to anyone.

The firefighter said he panicked when he was asked by staff at Peel Veterinary Clinic for a name.

"Smokey was the only thing I could think of that was slightly fire-related," he said, adding that veterinary staff had nicknamed the kitten Spicey because of his "attitude".

Smokey is now settling in at home, but is being kept away from the family's two other cats for a while.

Hughes said his three children "absolutely love him", but his daughter was "a little bit terrified" when Smokey started hissing.

Lucy Smith, one of the nurses at the practice, said it was common to see kittens and cats who had found themselves in similar situations, and often it was the nurses themselves who adopted them if no-one else came forward.

"One of our nurses went from no cats to three in the space of a few months," she added.

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