I met a nice fellow online last summer and then sort of lost touch with him. Last week, though, he used the chicken wing persuasion technique, and we set up a date to meet for dinner. We’ve been texting a lot, and have chatted about various lightweight topics, including my warning him that I’m working on becoming a Crazy Cat Lady with 4 cats currently in residence. He offered to take me for a drive to look for strays. Points in his favor!
So last night I drove 30 miles through kind of nasty weather and met him in the restaurant parking lot. I got out, said, “Hi!..Do you hear cat crying? I hear a cat crying.” He did not. I did. He continued to not. I continued to hear it. This went on for several sad pitiful meows, until suddenly he heard it too…but where the hell was it coming from?
We started looking and couldn’t see a cat anywhere. Finally he said, “Y’know…maybe you should open your hood.” I popped the latch and who should dash out but Six, MY CAT, who had ridden all the way to Wings and Rings in my engine compartment! Against all odds, she was uninjured, although her fur was awfully warm in spots and her feet were oily, no doubt from hanging on for her several dear lives.
She spent a little time waiting in the car while I wolfed down some wings with my new friend. If he isn’t changing his identity right this moment to avoid me, perhaps we will have another date, without cats this time. 
ha ha ha ha!
Poor kitty cat!!! But, um, yeah… I wouldn’t ask you out again.
I did promise him that I normally do NOT take my cats with me on dates. At least it gave us something to talk about! 
Perhaps Six needs to be on the buddy system with another kitty. 
I’ve seen cats inadvertently hitch rides like this quite a few times. It was usually in older trucks, though, which have more clear space under the hood, so they have places to sit. I’ve even opened a hood to find one particularly placid cat lounging comfortably on a wheel well after a 10-mile trip.
It was accepted practice around our household when I was young to slap the hood loudly before getting in the truck. While it seldom ran any cats out of the compartment, you occasionally got an annoyed meow and the joyous task of extracting the cat(s). Particularly stubborn cats sometimes had an encounter with the water hose.