Clutch fan saves cat's life!

If I had an older pickup that was built before they had clutch fans, I'd have had a dead cat Saturday morning. We've had our 2 outdoor cats for almost 6 months now. They've gotten under vehicles before and up on the axle or tires, but never in the engine compartment. My pickup was sitting outside as usual Friday night. The cats were running around in the yard in the morning, as usual, while I was loading stuff in the pickup. I have a squeaking fan belt, so when I went to start it, I didn't hear the extra screeching sound right away, so the engine ran for about 5 seconds before I realized what was going on. I opened the hood fully expecting to remove the cat in pieces. But, Tiny (the female) used up one of her lives and only had a few scratches and a sore foot. She was right up in the fan shroud and I had a trouble getting her out because she was scared and panicking. There was a little blood, but not much at all. I looked her over and it didn't look like anything was broken and didn't see any gashes, so I put her down and she took off at full speed. She hid under a bush the rest of the weekend, only coming out for food. She is very timid anyway, so she was really scared after the experience she went through. She's appears to be OK now, still limping a little on the sore foot. I would like to think she's learned her lesson and won't ever get in there again, but from what I've learned about cats in the last few months, I won't be surprised if she's in there again someday.

I guess Tiger, (the male), felt like he had to get some scratches also, so he decided to get into a fight with something (I don't know what) on Saturday night. He showed up at the house Sunday morning with a large gash on his rear leg. We put some neosporin on it. He's actually in worse shape than Tiny. But, he's walking and moving fine, so we'll just keep the wound coated with neosporin and it should heal.

Believe it or not, I actually felt a little sorry for them and let the kids bring them in the house and hold them in their laps for a while. I'm sure they'll show their gratification by leaving some poop where I don't want it!