Chester reunited with his owner after curious trip that nearly killed the cat

CHESTER THE kitten was reunited with his owner yesterday having used up many of his nine lives on an M50 adventure.

The four-month-old feline was rescued from the central median of the motorway near Dundrum, Dublin, on Wednesday, many miles from his Kilmainham home.

“We suspect that he probably got into the engine of a car and when the car slowed down at the M50 he managed to jump off and thankfully froze solid,” said Orla Aungier of the Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Climbing into car engines to keep warm was not unusual for cats. “Unfortunately in many cases the outcome isn’t as good,” Ms Aungier added.

Chester was rescued unharmed after gardaí stopped traffic on the busy motorway on Wednesday to allow the society’s ambulance driver Lisa Kemp to rescue him.

Delighted owner Conor Clancy collected his cat at a Rathfarnham shelter yesterday.

The black-and-white short-haired cat had gone missing on Tuesday evening. Mr Clancy had searched and knocked on neighbours’ doors trying to find him.

“I was resigned to the fact that he was probably gone. He must have slipped out the front door when I was going out. That’s the only explanation I can think of.”

When he saw photographs of his cat in news reports about the rescue, Mr Clancy contacted the society.

He had taken the cat in just a few weeks ago from a litter of kittens discovered in a shed. His partner and his son did not know the kitten was missing as they were on holidays in New Zealand and he did not want to ruin their trip. Mr Clancy was going to tell them the full story last night.

Chester was micro-chipped before leaving the shelter so he could be identified if his curiosity got the better of him again.