Cat rescued after hitching 15-mile ride under car

An indoor-only cat managed to travel 15 miles (24km) when he slipped outside the house and hitched a ride underneath a neighbour's car.

Four-year-old Olaf had been missing for four days when he was seen falling from underneath Abigail Harrison's vehicle as she arrived at work in Chelmsford.

In a huge stroke of luck, Harrison was the manager of a cat centre and was able to reunite Olaf with his owner, Hazel Ohler, at home in Braintree.

Ohler said: "Olaf is a scaredy-cat who can be afraid of his own shadow, so this must have been so traumatic for him."

The adventurous pet was described by Harrison as being "a bit skittish" upon discovery at her Galleywood-based Cats Protection office.

Alongside her colleagues, she managed to get uninjured Olaf into a carrier and used his microchip to identify his 55-year-old owner.

"It all happened so quickly," Harrison said. "He must have climbed under the bonnet or wheel arch near my home and fallen asleep.

"I had driven all that way with this poor cat trapped under my car."

Harrison was surprised to see Olaf's microchip reveal he lived in Braintree, adding: "We're pretty much neighbours."

Ohler had spent the previous four days putting up posters, sharing online appeals and searching garages for her beloved cat.

Olaf was kept as an indoor pet and had rarely ever been outdoors, leaving Ohler "beside myself with worry".

She said: "I couldn't believe it when Cats Protection called to say they had found him safe and well — especially when I learned how he had ended up miles from home, trapped under a car."

Ohler said it was "incredible that he picked that particular car to take a nap in".

"If he hadn't landed on the doorstep of Cats Protection, I dread to think what might have happened to him," she added.

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