Steveston house cat goes for wild ride in a car’s bumper, all the way to Burnaby

Lily the tabby is “100 per cent an indoor cat,” her owner Ruca Abbott said.

But Lily recently escaped her Steveston home and went for a ride that could have cost her one of her nine lives.

At around 5 a.m. Thursday, Abbott’s daughter woke up to find the front door open and no trace of Lily.

“Right away we started looking,” Abbott said. “We looked all day, put flyers out.”

READ MORE: Cat declawing ban spreads across the U.S. But it’s still allowed in Canada

They conducted a desperate search, mostly in and around their Steveston neighbourhood, but they came no closer to finding their beloved family pet.

Fortunately, the cat came back later that day, thanks to someone Abbott called “Lily’s guardian angel.”

“He lives in the neighbourhood,” she said. “Apparently Lily was in the bumper of his car throughout the whole day while he did errands.”

READ MORE: BC SPCA calls for vets to ban cat declawing

While in Burnaby, the driver of the car noticed Lily’s champagne-coloured tail hanging out from underneath his vehicle.

He took Lily to the Burnaby SPCA, who coaxed her out of the car. She was reunited with her owners thanks to the microchip inside her.

“I have no words,” Abbott said.

“I don’t know how she didn’t get hurt, how she didn’t fall off. I have no idea how she even survived.”