Cruising cat heads home

A moggy who stowed away on a luxury ferry seems to have enjoyed his trip to Barcelona

The Pride of Bilbao was docked in Portsmouth, Hampshire last Thursday when Sandi, a tom, somehow got on board – and wasn’t found until the vessel docked again at Barcelona, Spain. He was lurking under a lorry on the car deck of the ferry. His microchip allowed the ferry company to discover who owned him and Tim and Patricia Austin were contacted with the news that their stray tom had strayed further than they could ever have guessed. The Austin’s had been busy putting up flyers about Sandi’s disappearance in local streets, unaware that the cat was hundreds of miles away.

Sandi travelled home again on the same ship, and was given five star treatment: a private, en suite cabin with a sea view, gourmet meals of fish, chicken and milk, and a meeting with the ferry's captain, to ensure he was happy with the service. However, it’s not an entirely happy ending. Poor Sandi will be spending Christmas in quarantine where he must remain for six months, at his owners’ expense, because he may have picked up diseases during his journey. The Austin’s believe Sandi was catnapped as he hates travelling by car and they can’t accept that he voluntarily got into vehicle to travel to the docks.