Japan Airlines has reportedly announced that it will allow dogs to travel in the passenger cabin on certain charter flights.
I suppose that’s good news for some pet lovers, and it’s not uncommon to see pets on planes in some parts of the world, notably the United States. But, as much as I like animals, I’d hate to see this idea extended to all flights, because I don’t think it’s fair on other passengers. Continue reading Pets on a plane
While I have travelled a lot, for the past four years I have pitched my metaphorical tent in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.
One of the things that I like about this place is the fact that I feel that both I and my property is safe. There are few other places in the world where I would leave my mobile phone or other belongings on the table at a restaurant or bar when I go to the rest room. But in the UAE, I have complete confidence that they will be there when I return.
Similarly, I don’t fret about going home and finding my flat ransacked, and I don’t fear being mugged on the streets regardless of how late I am out and about.
So, what makes a city safe? Continue reading What makes a city safe?
One of the wonderful things about cats is that they’re everywhere. In the back sois of Bangkok, on the Acropolis, at beaches and building sites. I’ve taken hundreds of pictures of cats “in the wild” over many years, in dozens of countries. This video includes only a handful of them.
For more cat-related posts, click here.
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of photographing cats in the wild. By which, I mean domestic cats on the streets of big cities, in small town, at beaches, near famous monuments and anywhere else I can find them.
Despite the fact that they are a growing phenomenon — with about 60 in Tokyo alone, and many more across Asia and Europe — I haven’t yet been to a cat cafe.
One of the things I do when I travel is take pictures of cats and kittens I encounter along the way.
I didn’t have to go far to find these cuties. They were about a block away from where I live in Abu Dhabi, on a site being prepared for demolition.
Here is another excerpt from my unpublished book for young people and general readers:
There are many stories of cats who have travelled incredible distances on foot, by car, train or plane. Many cats have demonstrated a remarkable “homing” instinct, which guides them back to their homes over many miles.
In England, a cat called Sooty made it home from 160km away. Another British cat, Pilsbury, walked the 12km trip to a former home at least 40 times – and each time was retrieved by its owners. The champion of them all, though, is an American tomcat called Ninja who moved with his owners from Washington State to Utah in 1996. He disappeared soon after they settled in their new home, but turned up at his old place – 1370 kilometres away – a year later.
Skittles, a scruffy orange cat, went missing after travelling with its owners to a trailer park in Wisconsin, 568km from its home in Kelly Lake, Minnesota. The cat disappeared and the owners went home without it. About six months later, Skittles returned to Kelly Lake with calloused paws and bones showing through its skin – indicating it had walked all or most of the way back.
Sometimes, though, cats don’t get home under their own steam. In 2001, an international rescue mission was mounted to save a New Zealand cat that had stowed away on a cargo ship bound for South Korea. The cat, a female named Colin, was adopted nine years previously by dock workers. Her safe return, accompanied by quarantine officials, was sponsored by a pet food company and the Korean airline. “She’s been a bit of a naughty girl but we’re all looking forward to seeing her again,” said John Hacon, a spokesman for the Westgate tanker company, on the eve of her return to Port Taranaki.
A Florida woman was reunited with her cat in 2004 – seven years after it went missing. The 10-year-old cat turned up 4500km away in San Francisco. Authorities said the feline, Cheyenne, didn’t walk all the way, though. She was either adopted by a Florida family who then travelled to California, or hitched a ride with a cross-country vehicle.
News that Cheyenne had been found and identified by her microchip reached owner Pamela Edwards on the same day she was forced to her other, 19-year-old cat put down. “It has just been an amazing experience,” Ms Edwards said. “It’s really like reuniting with a lost family member.”
In July, 2004, British officials were mystified when a cat found on the streets of the university town of Oxford was found to be carrying a microchip that was registered in the United States. RSPCA inspector Doug Davidson said there were three theories as to how the cat, nicknamed Jasper, got to be in the UK.
“The first is that he’s a strong swimmer,” he joked. “The second is that he belongs to Americans living in Oxford and the third would be that it was a British family in the USA who adopted him and then brought him back.”
Probably the most-travelled cat of all was called Hamlet, who escaped from his container in the hold of a Canadian jet. When he was found behind an aircraft panel seven weeks later, the plane had flown 600,000km.
Another cat, Ozzy, had a similar adventure. He completed 10 round trips from the Middle East to the UK over 10 days before he was found in the cargo hold of a British Airways jet.
Sources: Homing Instinct, PBS Nature television program, pbs.org; Current Science, March 5, 2002, Vl 87, Issue 16, page 13; Cat rescue mission reaches Korea, Whiskas press release on Scoop.co.nz, December 3, 2001; Microchip reunites cat with owner, BBC News (news.bbc.co.uk), August 30, 2004; US ‘ambassador’ cat baffles RSPCA, BBC News (news.bbc.co.uk), August 5, 2004; Julia Wilson, www.cat-world.com.au, 2002-2005; Stowaway cat clocks up 63,000 miles, BBC North Yorkshire (bbc.co.uk/northyorkshire), July 19, 2002
1. Cats can be good for your health. Scientists at the University of Virginia discovered that kids exposed to cat dander at an early age were less likely to develop allergies than those who had only been exposed to dust mites. (Scholastic Choices, September 2001, Vol 17 Issue 1)
2. Cats don’t shoot you; dogs do. In the past five years, at least six Americans have been shot by their dog. According to the Washington Post, there have also been recent incidents in France and New Zealand.
3. Cats can sense illness and display empathy for people suffering bereavement.
4. Cats learn quickly to use a litter tray. You don’t have to take them for walkies just for them to follow nature’s call.
5. Cats are adorable.
Another excerpt from my unpublished, and untitled, book for young and general readers
The English novelist Thomas Hardy so loved his pet cat that he buried it beneath its favourite tree and penned these lines: “Never another pet for me! Let your place all vacant be!” Continue reading Felines’ friends
Many famous people have been cat lovers. Looming large among them is the 18th Century man of letters Dr Samuel Johnson, who had a cat called Hodge whom he adored. Continue reading Companion cats
Forget Shrek. Here’s a retelling of the original Puss in Boots story. It’s an excerpt from a book I once wrote for young and general readers, and I’m sharing it here because that’s the kind of guy I am Continue reading The original puss in boots
Another small excerpt from my unpublished book for young and general readers. Inquiries from potential publishers welcome!
While dogs have a far better reputation when it comes to selfless and loyal behaviour, the world is not without its cat heroes. Continue reading Elvis’s cat came back
Many years ago, I decided to write a book about cats for younger and general readers (it’s no academic tome, folks). It never quite got finished, and was never published. But I’ve decided to publish some of it here, lest someone on the webs has an interest in picking it (or, indeed, me) up. Continue reading Of cats and kings
Admittedly,the quality is not excellent, but the subject matter is. This cat apparently has (or, at the time, had) the run of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, where the tsars of Russia from Peter the Great onwards are buried.
I also learned from a television report that there are cats at the Hermitage Museum, where their job is to keep the magnificent former royal place and its surrounds free of rats and mice.
* I added the word Russia because I’ve also been to St Petersburg in Miami, US, which is kind of historic, too.
