WHEN Mike Sugden heard a squeaking noise coming from under the bonnet of his Citroen Picasso, he immediately feared a costly repair bill.

Instead, he ended up with a new pet – after mechanics at his local garage fished out a hideaway, in the form of a four-week-old kitten, from the engine bay.

It’s thought the kitten, which Mike and partner Katrina Hunt have taken in and named Bluebell, endured a chilly 35-mile trip from Murton, near York, to the couple’s home in Willerby, near Hull, after stumbling into a warm place to take a nap.

Mike, 54, had parked at The Yorkshire Museum of Farming, where he is a member of the Derwent Valley Light Railway, while he lent a hand at a Christmas show.

He said: “Driving back, I heard a squeaking noise. I’d also been having problems with a headlight, so I thought I’d take the car in to the garage. When the bonnet was popped up I made out a tiny, little head – not much bigger than a golf ball really – in the engine bay.”

Mechanic Phil Johnson, of David Johnson's Motor Engineers in Hull, said: “As I was bending down to look at the headlight I heard a definite meow.

“I turned to Mike, who was stood next to me, and said ‘Is that your phone?’ Some phones these days have weird text alerts.

“We then looked down and saw this cat sat on the gea box, under the bonnet. It seemed quite happy. I went to pick it up, but it crawled further into the engine bay.

"Eventually, with a bit of help from the lads, I managed to coax it out and I grabbed it by the tail, before it crawled further into the chassis.”

The mystery was solved when Mike spoke to museum staff.

“One of them told me a little black kitten had climbed up his leg a day or two earlier and he’d put it near a pile of wood, close to where I had parked,” said Mike.