Put Me In Coach

I like to travel.

I used to prefer walking, with a hobo stick and sack of snacks over my shoulder. Nowadays I’ve taken a liking to the ‘Old Man Express’ for my local needs.  All that means is I get picked up while being carried up and down the stairs.

For long distance trips I prefer the passenger seat of our Ford Explorer. No reason to sit in the back seat considering all I’ve done for this family. Lest you worry, I buckle up for safety’s sake, especially if my mother is at the helm.

For really long distance trips I fly. It’s the only time I get to break out my Eddie Bauer luggage. Don’t tell anybody but I sneak dog biscuits bigger than three ounces in the front pouch. Security is none the wiser.

So when I travel over large swaths of the American frontier I do it in a plane, via first class. Hey, nobody puts Bobo in coach. Apparently if your Geoffrey the cat, they do.

He traveled over 300 miles in the luggage compartment of a coach from his Isle of Wight home to the Yorkshire resort of Whitby before being found. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what they mean by coach since I’m pretty sure they’re not talking about a horse and buggy. Here’s the story, see if you can figure it out.

The fifteen-month-old bengal has been known to go off for a night or two but when he disappeared for three weeks his owners thought they may never see him again – until he turned up in North Yorkshire.

Cat lovers Cindy and Tim Whitbread could not believe it when they got a telephone call on Monday to say their pet was alive and well despite his ten-hour journey by road.

The only explanation for Geoffrey’s jaunt is that he must have hopped into the luggage compartment of one of the many coaches that pull up at nearby hotels and B&Bs in the tourist destination.

He has then made an hour long journey to get to the ferry port, travelled for an hour over the English Channel and then headed up on the slow coach ride to the North of England.

Mum-of-two Cindy said: “All-in-all he must have been travelling for about 10 hours – it’s 326 miles. At least he went somewhere lovely. It has made it a whole lot nicer to come and pick him up.

“On the day he disappeared he had his breakfast and then wondered off as usual, he often goes to the local café because they give him titbits to eat.

The 36-year-old picked Geoffrey up from the vet on Friday along with her husband, Tim, 50, who is in the RAF.Geoffrey was found in a field in Whitby a week ago by 10-year-old Zac Archibald who took the cat home to his mum Chris, 49, and together they nursed him back to health.

Chris said: “We put posters up and asked around the village in the hope of finding his owners. After a couple of days we took him to the vet to see if he was chipped.

“I thought I was hearing things when they scanned him and found out he was from the Isle of Wight.”

RSPCA spokesperson Sophie Corless said: “Microchipping is recommended as an effective way of linking pets to owners, and increasing the chances of them being reunited if lost, stolen or they stray.

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