Travels with Kate Blakemore's moggy

Stowaway cat turns up miles from home - Staffordshire Sentinel

When Kate Blakemore's black and white cat Marvin went missing, she didn't expect him to turn up five weeks later 15 miles away.

It is believed the adventurous moggy may have sneaked on to a narrowboat and travelled from Goldenhill to Barlaston as a stowaway on the canal.

… Kate said: "I live near the canal and so does the lady who had adopted him, so I think he must have hopped on a barge.

Not a barge!  There are no barges on the Trent & Mersey Canal!

And it's not 15 miles away; not as the cat prowls, still less as the crow flies.  Google Maps walking route (12 miles)  here. Canalplan boat route (11 miles) here.

Curious cats like creeping aboard open narrowboats, especially in winter.   This particular route, by boat, must have been intriguing, because very soon after departing, moggy Marvin would have been in the Harecastle Tunnel, and by the time the boat came out, 2 miles later, he would have emerged blinking into the daylight and surely totally lost.

I remember taking Granny Buttons into a Buckby lock a few years ago, on a cold winter's day, and seeing a cat prowling the  lockside.    At the next lock I went below, and found the cat curled up contentedly next to my heater.   I sighed and picked him up and started to carry him back to the previous lock.  He jumped out of my arms, but I'm sure he was in his home territory so I didn't worry. 

But it made me realise that canal boats are unwitting kidnapping catnapping machines.