TravelChick

Stowaway

There was a cat in my car yesterday. It crawled under the hood from underneath and got itself wedged underneath the engine and near the wheel. One of the guys who
washes cars at work pointed it out (he heard a meowing sound) in the morning and I thought it was simply beneath the car. Not so. When I stopped off at a shop near our offices at the villa in the afternoon some guys ran out of the shop when they heard the meowing. They said 'You have a cat in your car!' I popped the hood and almost threw up when I saw a little cat's face poking out from near the wheel.

The shop guys and I tried to get it out but it wouldn't come out (dumb cat! it was definitely over 100 degrees yesterday; why did it crawl into my hot, hot NEW car?), so the guys suggested I take it to a gas station. I drove across the street to the gas station next to the Nissan dealership, as I figured I could get the dealership to look at it if the guys at the gas station couldn't help me. Driving across the street of course meant a ten minute drive down to a nearby roundabout and back because of all the construction.

I got to the gas station, jumped out of the car saying, 'There's a cat in my car! There's a cat in my car!' in both Arabic and English, and realized the meowing had stopped. After getting many puzzled looks from the gas station attendants, who surely thought I was crazy, I finally found a mechanic who seemed to understand the problem. One of the guys at the garage looked under my car and assured me that the cat was gone. Somewhere on the way to the garage, perhaps when I hit a speed bump, that cat had fallen out of my car. Yes, terrible, I know, but I also feel lucky
that the cat didn't die in my car. So, I returned to work, my car cat-free, late for my meeting because of the cat. Yes, I heart Doha.

posted by Travel Chick @ 4:44 PM