I remember the exact same thing happening to our family with a neighbor‘s cat in the early 1970s. We had a 1967 old 88, which had a shelf for the battery on both the left and the right side of the engine compartment, so one was empty. Well, one day my mother took my brothers and I to the grocery store to do some shopping, and when we came out, I saw a cat that looked exactly like our neighbor’s cat, Victor. Well, it was Victor. I caught him, and we returned him back home. It was pretty easy, even for a 10-year-old like me, to figure out what had happened.
I can’t blame this state senator, because cats are not exactly the smartest animals on the planet. No one is going to open the hood of their car every time they started up to check and see if some idiot cat is throwing away. At least the cat didn’t get chopped up by the fan blade (which happened to a college roommate of mine when he was in high school - he said that it took three days to clean the engine compartment out of all of the blood and fur).
Apologies for the typos. I really have to check what Siri writes a little bit more carefully before I hit the post button..
I check under the hood and get down to look under the vehicle. Lost too many kitties who thought the car a safe place.