The reason I used ‘dead cat in the engine compartment’ was because of a real situation that happened to a late friend of mine.
He was a retired Air Force guy working for the County Road Department.
One day he was supposed to take a big dump truck out to a worksite but when he tried to start it, there was a strange noise in the front of the truck and a thump-thump-thump that shook the cab.
So he called maintenance to come and look at it, thinking it threw a rod or something.
When they got there and opened the hood there was a dead cat in pieces all over the engine compartment. Apparently the cat had crawled into the engine bay to keep warm during the night and got tangled up in the belts and fan when he tried to start the engine.............
there was a strange noise in the front of the truck and a thump-thump-thump that shook the cab.
My mom did that with her 1981 Monte Carlo one winter/spring day. Same thing, except the cat was cut up, but still alive. She put it in the car, took it to the vet, and saved its life. Tom, as he was later named, became a garage kitty for the rest of his life. She also started knocking on the hood 3-4 times as she walked to the drivers door to get in, to wake up and scare any kitties (or other animals) that crawled in the compartment for warmth.