THIS was the day Napoleon met his Waterloo.

But the pitched battle was fought under the bonnet of a Peugeot 206 rather than on a windswept Belgian field.

The 10-year-old puss managed to lose two of his nine lives in one day after he tumbled out of an open second storey window, before wedging himself in the engine of a parked car.

Firefighters from Worthing were called yesterday afternoon to dismantle the car after the terrified feline refused to budge.

Owner Angela Atkinson, 42, of Byron Road, Worthing was packing to move house when Napoleon tumbled from her window.

She said: “I was in the process of packing and opened the window to get some fresh air in the place. He decided he was going to sit on the window sill, but his leg slipped and he fell out of the window.

“He got frightened and ran and hid underneath a car and as I was trying to coax him out, he jumped up into the engine.”

The car’s owner Sandra Dudas was visiting her mother who lives in the road.

She said: “We lifted the bonnet and the cat was poking his head out, but as we went to get him he disappeared.”

Firefighters were forced to jack the car up, take its front wheels off and remove its air filter and battery to try and coax Napoleon out.

A member of the crew said: “He was right in the middle of the engine, tucked behind the gear box.

“When we finally managed to coax him out he ran off and for a moment I though he was going to shoot up a tree but luckily he didn’t.”

According to firefighters the pure white puss “looked a bit like a dalmatian” when he was finally released.

Napoleon is now recovering at home after the one-and-a-half hour rescue.

Miss Atkinson said: “I have one very tired, dirty, hungry cat. He is very shaken and jumpy. I’m just relieved to have him back.

“He’s very dirty and smells of oil but I might leave it a while before I try and wash him.”