The SPCA suspects a Wairarapa cat that boarded a train to Wellington is a lonesome traveller of no fixed abode.
The 2-year-old short grey male was discovered last Thursday by a train manager in Wellington who was then scratched so badly he needed bandages - forcing Kiwi Rail to delay the train by 30 minutes while they found a new driver.
The cat, named "Toots" by the SPCA, is being looked after at their Wellington branch until the Wairarapa owner calls in.
But communications officer Vanessa Hetherington said that given the nervousness of Toots it was possible he had no owner.
"A lot of them, when they come in this environment, get quite nervous because its unusual for them but he's particularly nervy."
Ms Hetherington suspected he might have been living by a Wairarapa railway station before he boarded but he was strangely well-fed for a stray cat.
Adding to the mystery was that Toots had been found after the midday train from Wairarapa had run, which lowered the possibility he had crept into the carriage overnight.
She dismissed the idea Toots was a railway cat born and raised on the carriage, surviving on scraps and the kindness of commuters. "I would be very surprised to be honest, I'm sure the noise and the people would have been enough of a deterrent."
Read the original story here - Longhaul cat goes loco
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