Cat survives cruise in cop car engine

BUFFALO GROVE - A Buffalo Grove police patrol car recently hosted a large and perhaps inadvertently adventurous Felis Catus under its hood.

“It's like nothing I've heard,” police Cmdr. Steve Husak said Friday of the incident.

Police said the patrol officer spotted a black cat motionless in a parking lot Oct. 30 on the 1100 block of Windbrooke Drive. When he got out of his car and, in the words of the report, “nudged” the animal to see if it was all right, it promptly streaked under the officer's squad car and “would not move from the engine compartment.”

The officer took a chance and drove the car to the Buffalo Grove Public Works Department garage, where workers were able to extract the uninjured feline from his pole position perilously close to the engine fan.

They transported the cat, upon whom officers bestowed the name Spooky, to King's Kennels in Riverwoods, but not before issuing him three tickets: for being at large, being without a license and not having proof of a rabies shot.

Despite his adventure and his tickets, Spooky is doing well, a King's Kennels spokesman said.