Woman Discovers Random Smiling Dog Inside Engine of Her Car

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Dogs turn up in the most random of places sometimes. In your shoe closet, under the kitchen sink, in a rabbit hole… what they’re doing in these places, it’s probably best not to think too much about. But you won’t be able to stop yourself scratching your head in wonder at how a little pooch from Campo Largo, Brazil, managed to end up where he did… stuck in the engine of a complete stranger’s car. As ronproject.com reports, Lidiane Braga Carlos (she’s the stranger, if you hadn’t guessed) was having a perfectly normal day before she discovered her car’s hood was concealing something small, dark, and friendly. She’d spent the morning running errands in town, and was just about to head home when her day suddenly took a turn for the peculiar. After working fine all day, her car suddenly stalled. She tried to restart but to no avail. After a few more failed attempts, she decided to check things out. But it wasn’t a troublesome engine that was waiting for her when she popped the hood.

The Hitchhiker

When Lidiane popped the hood of her car, she was expecting the worst. A dead battery, a damaged alternator, a broken starter motor… the possibilities were endless. But as turned out, it was none of those things. What it was instead was enough to make her gasp in surprise. Because gazing up at her from beneath the hood was nothing else but a dog. A smiling dog, to be precise. Whether by luck, accident, or design, the friendly little dog had managed to wedge himself inside next to the engine compartment – although how he managed to find his way there in the first place, Lidiane still has no idea to this day. ‘When I opened the bonnet and saw the dog, I almost had a heart attack,” Lidiane later recalled to The Dodo (www.thedodo.com/close-to-home/dog-smiling-car-engine). “It was a big fright! Could you imagine a dog in the engine? I was so worried about whether he was hurt or not.”

Lidiane to the Rescue

Fearing that the dog may be hurt, Lidiane immediately made a call to the fire department to ask for help. But while she waited, a passerby asked if she needed any assistance. After some pushing and pulling, the pair of them finally managed to get the little dog out. At first glance, he seemed to have escaped the experience unscathed, but determined to be on the safe side, Lidiane popped him into the passenger seat of her car (which, relieved of its hitchhiker, was now working perfectly) and hot-footed it to the vets.

No Harm Done

After a thorough examination by a vet, Lidiane’s new-found friend was given the all-clear. “The poor little thing was very scared and I called the fire department straight away but before they arrived, we managed to get him out,” Lidiane’s since recalled to the Daily Mail. ‘I’m so glad he didn’t get hurt. I took him to the vet but thankfully he was all okay. She said he must be about eight to 10 months old and is very docile”. “Thank God he wasn’t hurt,” she added.

The Mystery

But while the little dog seemed no worse for his experience, everyone else was left puzzling over how exactly he managed to find his way into Lidiane’s engine in the first place. And now they had another mystery to solve as well – where had he actually come from? Lidiane had made multiple stops that morning, so there seemed no way of figuring out exactly where or when the dog had decided to hop on board. As the dog seemed perfectly healthy and friendly, there didn’t seem much chance of him being a stray. Lidiane and her family were left to conclude that he’d either got lost or been abandoned. Either way, she was just glad he hadn’t been injured by the experience.

Waiting for a Forever Home

Since making the strange discovery, Lidiane and her family have decided to foster the dog until they can either find his original owner or, failing that, find someone willing to give him a new forever home. Although Lidiane would love to look after the dog permanently, she says her home is only big enough for one animal – a position that’s already filled by her pet Labrador.

Other Strange Cases

An engine might seem like a strange place for a dog to hang out, but this isn’t the first time a pet has popped up in an unusual place. Earlier this year, bangordailynews.com treated us to the story of Cargo, a very unusual cat who somehow managed to hitchhike all the way from California to Maine onboard a military cargo plane. Cargo’s presence was only discovered after the plane’s pilot, Air Force Capt. Daniel Cotton, and his crew discovered a small pile of poop and a half-eaten muffin on the flight deck. After following the trail of evidence, Cotton discovered the little cat curled up asleep in the cargo. “I’ve been on hundreds of flights all over the world and landed in pretty much every continent and never had a hitchhiker quite like that,” Cotton said.

The staff at the airport were similarly bemused. After handing the cat over to the Bangor Humane Society, both they and the society started the search for little Cargo’s owner. But to no avail. After three weeks of contacting animal shelters, Air Force bases, and launching a social media campaign, it was decided the best next step would be to put Cargo up for adoption. Fortunately, there were plenty of volunteers. Capt. Cotton had already told the society he’d adopt the cat if his owners couldn’t be found, but as Cotton had by now departed for Europe, two of the airport staff, Nanci Hamlin and Justin Proulx, offered to give the little stowaway a home instead. “He is a real spitfire and we call him a Tasmanian Devil,” Hamlin says. “He usually really gets going around two in the morning.” Despite being very happy in his new home, Cargo still has an eye for adventure, loving nothing more than to spend his days gazing out of the window. “I feel he wants to know what’s out there,” Hamlin says. “But he’s an indoor cat now.”