This exhausted cat was feline a little stressed out after it survived a terrifying 30 mile journey by a whisker stuck on a car roof.
Hapless pet ‘Bilbo Baggins’ desperately clung onto the roof rack of the Land Rover by her claws as the driver sped along a busy dual carriageway at 70mph.
The stunned driver only spotted the terrified stowaway when he slowed to round a bend and saw the traumatised animal leap off the vehicle and run off into the undergrowth.
Incredibly, Bilbo survived the terrifying 30 journey from Kings Acre, Hereford to Ludlow, Shropshire.
Bilbo’s owners Alli and Andrew Hartless spent six days searching for the ten-year-old tabby until they finally spotted her trembling on top of a fence.
Mother-of-two Alli, 42, said: ”We are amazed she survived the journey. She is a resilient cat but is still too scared to go near cars.
”She certainly used a few lives up with her adventure.”
The terrifying ordeal began when Bilbo took a cat nap on the roof of a Land Rover belonging to a neighbour who worked for energy giant E.On.
Alli, who works at a local hospice, said: ”Bilbo loved to doze in the roof rack of the Land Rover where our neighbour kept all his harnesses and cables for work.
”He must have driven to work not realising he had an extra guest on board. He told us he could hear scratching but thought it was just his work stuff rattling around.
”When he got to Ludlow he slowed down to go round a bend and saw a cat jump off into the middle of the road.
”He recognised it as Bilbo because her tail was pulled off when she was a youngster by her previous owners.”
Distraught Alli, her husband Andrew, 44, and their two daughters Lauren, seven, and two-and-a-half-year-old Ellie spent hours searching for Bilbo to no avail.
Andrew, a caretaker for the local council, said: ”We put posters all over Ludlow and asked everyone to keep an eye out for her but had no joy.
”The children were distraught, she was very much a part of our family.”
Alli added: ”We were beginning to think we’d lost her forever until we went back to the spot she had jumped off the van and saw her on a fence.
”When we found her she was clawing to get down from a fence. I was crying, my friend who was helping us was crying, it was very emotional.
”We really thought we’d never see her again.”
