California woman returns to car to find bizarre note that sends her on a 4-hour quest: ‘There’s a cat in your engine’

A woman who returned to her parked car to find a strange note with a warning telling her there might be a cat in her engine has shared the bizarre quest that ensued on TikTok. The video, which has received over five million views on the video-sharing platform, showed the woman’s attempts to find and rescue the feline that had somehow gotten stuck inside her vehicle.

The woman, who goes by “cynnrubyy” on TikTok, showed the note, which reads: “It sounds like there’s a cat in your engine!” Meanwhile, the sound of a cat’s cries can clearly be heard coming from her car. It’s a strange situation, but the cat distribution system works in mysterious ways, so Ruby immediately begins investigating, searching underneath her car for the source of the meowing sound.

Seeing nothing, she pops open the hood of the vehicle, although she begins to doubt if the cat is even real, saying, “It sounds like a fake cat. Is somebody f—ing with me?” There seems to be no sign of a cat under the hood either, but the cat’s cries can still be heard.

For a while, the search yields no results, until Ruby gives a thorough check under the bedding of her car. Poking her camera into a tiny nook, she finally sees it: a cat curled up underneath her car.

Enticing the cat out proves to be a challenge

Cats can get into the strangest of places sometimes, but finding the cat was only half the battle. With it located, Ruby’s next challenge is to get the furry would-be-hitchhiker out of there, but that would be easier said than done. Her plan involves using fries to tempt the cat out of its hidey-hole, but the furball only retreats deeper into the darkness. Ruby vows to leave her car where it is all night if that’s what it takes, deciding to call her brother for help before the video ends.

In the video description, Ruby claims that the cat finally came out from under her car after four hours. Viewers on TikTok praised the person who left the note, calling whoever did it “an angel.” Another commenter claimed a cat being in their car was their “worst fear,” adding, “What if I don’t notice and start my car[?]”

Thankfully, Ruby did notice. However, her problems with the cat are not over, as it seems the little critter has taken a liking to her car. It later returned to its new hiding spot and caused more inconvenience for Ruby, who now has to constantly check her vehicle before she uses it. In another video, she claims the cat “keeps going back to my engine.” 

While she tries her best to convince the cat to come out, it simply meows loudly. Viewers speculated that the cat might have been hiding there because it was a warm place to sleep.