A Whangarei woman noticed a flash of brown in her rear vision mirror, but didn't think anything of it.
As Amy King rushed to get her daughters to soccer training on Wednesday afternoon, she didn't see her extra passenger on the roof - the family's dark brown burmese cat Lilli.
Ms King's neighbours, however, had spotted Lilli - clinging on as Ms King drove past their lounge window.
Too late - Lilli and co were gone by the time the neighbours could raise the alarm.
When Ms King arrived home an hour later, the neighbours informed her of her car-surfing cat which was nowhere to be seen.
Ms King realised the brown rear-vision flash she spotted when she was driving between Whangarei Museum and Barge Park was probably her beloved Lilli.
She retraced her tracks in the dark with a torch, but to no avail.
"I am so worried and I have two very upset pre-schoolers," she says.
The only thing offering her any consolation is the fact she hasn't yet found Lilli "squashed" anywhere. Ms King is hoping that she jumped off the car at some point safely and is now venturing around the Maunu area.
"She's mischievous and she's been in the car before. And her sister, a light chocolate brown burmese called Juju, spent the day at Whangarei Girls' High a year ago after she went on an adventure and wound up howling on a WGHS staff member's roof."
Juju was relocated thanks to her micro-chip, and Ms King says Lilli also has a micro-chip, but she is not wearing a collar. Lilli is 6-years-old and dark brown with no white markings.
"If anyone saw her fall off, I'd like to know if she fell safely or not."
