I am glad that your kid came away from the encounter unharmed – assuming so, at least. That sounds scary.
No wonder Neighbor Cat abandoned ship from the neighbors. I support Neighbor Cat’s decision.
The weirdly religious neighbors sound like a pestilence on the neighborhood.
Thank you–he was definitely scared, and worried that he would be beaten up. I wish we hadn’t had an influx of people like that in the area. Used to be ski bums, loggers and old hippies for the most part around here. I think Neighbor Cat feels much safer with us–and she gets impromptu car rides!
Have you seen the video from Royal Auto Service in Georgia? It’s not clear to me if they’re selling the car or if it was on a test drive from somewhere else & the prospective buyer just stopped at their shop for help. Anyway, they hear a cat stuck in the engine block of this Mercedes. The son, who is behind the camera, calls in his absolute smoke show of a dad (shop owner & head mechanic) to help. It’s dad’s day off. But as the resident feline-in-engine- block extraction expert, dad rushes over to save the day. After commendering son’s cell phone flashlight, dad finally catches a glimpse of the kitten & immediately melts into a pile of baby-talking mush “Ohh, I see you! What a pretty face!”
They end up pushing the car into the garage to put on the lift. Then dad reaches up & extracts the kitten after a bit of a tussle. They rush her to the vet, where she is christened Mercedes, & bring her home to assume the role of shop cat.
Someone explain to Kitty Mercedes that there are easier ways of getting lifetime employment, with mega benefits – and lotsa love. 
I haven’t seen that one. And yes, I think a lovely drive from NC to Georgia isn’t too far for an oil change, if Dad does it. 
Here’s a universe laughs story:
The barn I boarded at had kittens. My daughter really wanted a kitten. We did not want a 4th cat and told her no. Driving home from the barn we come across a kitten in the road. We thought it was dead until it looked directly at us. Last minute swerving to avoid the live kitten. Put the kitten in the car on my lap and I’m now trying to juggle kitten and takeout. Well, she got away from me, fell off the center console into the back seat and crawled under it. We were 2 minutes from home so I tell the kids to just leave her alone. Get home and lift the seat to find there was NO kitten. She had crawled up between the panels inside the truck and was stuck, with it being 100+ outside.
The only thing we could think of was to immediately drive to the local dealership and explain the situation. They had to take the back seat out completely and pull back the interior panels. They were nice enough to not charge us a penny. We called our vet and they stayed late to evaluate this very troublesome kitten.
I heeded the universe’s decree and got a 4th cat.
You haven’t seen what dad looks like 
Yay, Sdel!. What is set in motion cannot be undone when the cat distribution system chooses you! 
Her nickname is Whichy. Because you never know which cat you’ll get or for how long.
Let’s see if this works. This is the Dodo cut of dad & Mercedes.
https://youtube.com/shorts/X3IHIQGlEGY?si=mV8hOaOz7-4FT4sv
And how did Little Kitty Mercedes end up in such an awful predicament?
Just climbing around in those wee little spaces, always going deeper, with no regard for motorization. Seemed like the right idea at the time – to Mercedes. 
How old do y’all think little Mercedes is? She looks maybe less than 6 weeks? Older? She just looks like such a baby to already be away from momma cat. But some human obviously didn’t want responsibility. Hope that any siblings fared well when they, too, were out of the nest.
Iirc, they estimated her age at the vet. I’ll have to go back & watch the unedited video on TikTok. I’m guessing 8 weeks? 12 weeks would be more ideal, but 8 weeks is technically old enough to leave mom. The unedited version shows them bringing her back from the vet & settling her into a cozy little area they’d partitioned off with the dog doting over her.
Eta completely random factoid: Mercedes was the name of Dimler’s daughter. We probably owe the existance of the motor car to Bertha Benz, wife of Karl. Barred from studying at the University, Bertha was, nevertheless, an extremely talented engineer & had more get 'er done attitude than her husband. One Sunday, she decided it was time – Karl be damned. She loaded their 2 teenaged sons in the car & the 3 of them set out on what would become the first long distance drive in a motor car. By the time they arrived at her mother’s house 60 miles & 12 hours later; Bertha had become the first motorcar mechanic (gerryrigging repairs with her hat pin & garter), invented brake pads on fly, & inadvertantly established the world’s first gas station.
Close, but not quite right.
According Wikipedia, and the story I have been told as long as I can remember, the “Mercedes” in “Mercedes Benz” comes from the name of the daughter (named Mercedes) of Emil Jellink (later known as Emil Jellinek-Mercedes), an early Austrian automobile entrepreneur, and salesman, who named the 1901 Dailmer-Benzes he sold after his daughter. In 1902 he reistered “Mercedes” as a trademark, and in 1903 he changed his surname…
See
That’s where Francie likes to sit on road trips.
I was worried I might have to take. my cats with me to the horse show (via Mom’s House) next week. My biggest concern was the 2 cats and Mom sharing the car for 600 miles. None of the 3 like their routine changed.
Mom would have been put out if I told her she had to play Miss Daisy and ride in the back seat because the cat crate goes in the front seat.
Ohh! Good to know! Thank you for this!
My kind of trivia.
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