Do you yearn for the open road? Ever feel an itch to set out into the unknown world and just move on and on to the horizon?

I do.

Let me tell you something in confidence, the next time the-woman-who-feeds-me attempts to spoon out food from a can in my bowl (quelle horreure!) I’m hitting that highway!

I’ll be heading for the Hillbilly Highway, Highway 61, Highway 20 Ride, I don’t care which one, I’ll hit the road, Jack. It will be my way or the highway.

And it can be done! Kitty the Cat, backpacker extraordinaire, is spending the next 3 years hiking from Miami to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego.

Accompanying her on her journey are her staff people, William and Laetitia, a French couple who fancy a bit of walking to pass the time.

The tireless trio share their adventures on Turn of the World with photos and video.

Although, now that I think about it, perhaps it would be a little irksome padding along for three years, I get tired easily these days. Maybe I can convince the woman to carry me along the road instead? (as long as she can cook my meals four times a day).

This cat would have a lot of hairballs! Unless of course, her staff person spends a lot of time brushing.

That’s why I bring National Hairball Awareness Day to your attention – a day to recognise and take steps to eliminate hairballs in cats. I want to make this day International Hairball Awareness Day. After all, we live all over the place. I’d keep the same date of course, the last Friday in April

The woman who feeds me is accustomed to hairballs, she usually finds them in the morning, when she has no shoes on. For some reason she’s not too happy about it but I try hard to leave them on the tiles instead of the couch and I expect deep gratitude for my foresight.

Sparkle was considering a contest, wanting photos of hairballs and everyone voting on the best one but her staff person …

thought that was “gross” and said she didn’t want to have to crop and resize a bunch of pictures of hairballs.

People! Mine’s the same!

What’s worse, the woman who feeds me says she has no time to judge hairballs much less find prizes for the best hack attack and send stuff all over the world. I don’t know what she does with all that time at her disposal.

Personally, I’d like to see some photos of fabulously furry felines. As a neat short-hair myself I sometimes find myself gazing longingly at more hirsute neighbours but at least I’m cool during the hotter months.

But are you a floofy cat? Want to send me a photo of your furry glory? At least I can feature you!

Before I go I must remind you that humans get hairballs too. Make sure your person eats a little knob of butter every week and always drinks plenty of water. Grass is good for them too. Force your person to eat lots of grass every day – they really don’t like to eat grass, but you must insist that this is for their health and prevention of hairballs!

And a Happy Hairball Day to you!

Charles, how did you do it? How did you travel 1300 miles? Thank heavens for microchips!

Charles went missing while his staff person, Robin Alex, was away volunteering for the Habitat for Humanity

From his home in New Mexico, Charles made his way 1,300 miles north to Chicago, where the Chicago Animal Care and Control picked him up as a stray.

Assuming the worst all this time, you can imagine Robin’s relief when she received the call saying they had found her tabby cat. But, even with the wild excitement, she was now in fear again.

She couldn’t afford the ticket to go and get Charles and bring him home!

When the story hit the news a woman felt compelled to send this story to her son who lived in Albuquerque, Lucien Sims. Sims was very touched by the story, he too has a tabby who has a striking resemblance to Charles.

Sims was on his way to Chicago to attend a wedding and offered to help Alex be reunited with her beloved cat. He picked up Charles from the shelter and found someone to donate the carrier for the trip as well as convincing American Airlines to waive the flight fee for his travel home.

Charles and his staff person seem overjoyed at the reunion. I bet that will teach her to never go away again!

Apart from a slight respiratory infection, and needing a good brushing, Charles is in excellent condition.

There’s a video of Charles the Cat here (which I can’t embed) telling the story of how Charles was picked up in Chicago and identified by his microchip.