Snickers the farm cat came back after stowing away beneath hood of truck that took him 100 km from home

March 1, 2024 Canuck

Snickers is your regular farm cat: cute and curious with long hair and white, black and grey spots.

But that curiosity almost shaved off one of his nine lives after the eight-month-old stowed away beneath the hood of a pickup truck that took him for a long ride from home.

Lindsay Wytick said Snickers went missing Monday from their family home in the Cypress River area, about 145 kilometres west of Winnipeg.

The cat ended up wandering away while Wytick was on a business call with a client who came by and then left in the early evening.

“We just figured OK, maybe he’ll come out of the woodwork on the farmyard,” Wytick told Radio Noon host Marjorie Dowhos on Wednesday. “The next morning we pretty much realized he was gone.… Being a farm kitty they could be here, there or anywhere.”

She and her kids became worried. They wondered if Snickers had hitched a ride in the vehicle of that client.

Radio Noon Manitoba5:34The cat came back after a 100 kilometer adventure

A Manitoba family is relieved and overjoyed that their 8 month old kitten is back home safe and sound after he travelled more than a 100 kilometers away hiding under the hood of a truck

Whiting called the man, who was now in Brandon, about 100 km away. He took a look around his truck, but no signs of Snickers.

Still operating on the assumption that Snickers did hitch a ride on that truck and was off exploring in Brandon, Wytick posted a notice about her missing kitty in the Brandon and Area Lost Animals Facebook page Monday night.

A map shows a cat in a circle on a map graphic with a red line running from its home in Cypress River to Brandon, Man. — Snickers travelled about 100 kilometres during the voyage from Cypress River to Brandon, Man. (Submitted by Lindsay Whitting)

By 8 p.m. Tuesday night, a woman posted on the page saying she and her partner found Snickers. They sent Wytick a photo to confirm and sure enough, it was Snickers.

“I was over the moon,” Wytick said. “We were on Cloud 9.”

Wytick drove to Brandon Wednesday and scooped him up.

She surmised that because it was a colder day on Monday, Snickers likely found his way up around the hood to stay warm by wriggling up from beneath the truck. The couple that found him was only a few houses away from the client’s home.

Snickers is in good spirits, “eating, drinking and doing a lot of sleeping,” said Wytick.

“We’re not a huge cat family.… We got him as a kitten and we just kind of took him,” said Wytick. “He’s just an all-around good kitty.”

Snickers joins a long line of felines that have given their owners a scare by sneaking into a vehicle that unwittingly transported them long distances.

Harry the tabby climbed up into the underbelly of a truck to get warm and was whizzed around southern Ontario in 2022.

Spooky the black cat made it from Redvers, Sask., into the U.S. by hiding in a semi in 2020, while Eco the tiny orange kitten survived in a tiny engine compartment of a truck that took him on a two-hour drive from home the same year.

As for Snickers, he’ll have to get crafty if he wants to get into trouble outdoors again sometime soon. He’ll be an indoor cat until spring, said Wytick.