Did every Cat Lady exclaim “Say what?” when the news broke of Charles, a brown tabby cat who walked the 1,300 miles from his Albuquerque home to Chicago?
Charles disappeared from his home about eight months ago when his Cat Lady left to pursue volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans. Just last week, a staff member of the Chicago Animal Care and Control agency found Charles wandering the streets of the “City of the Big Shoulders,” as Carl Sandburg famously wrote. Because a tracking microchip was embedded between Charles’s shoulder blades, the agency was able to trace the cat to his Cat Lady in New Mexico. A kind-hearted cat lover and fellow resident of Albuquerque paid for Charles to return home in record time via the wings of American Airlines.
Among the amazing facts of this story is that Charles’s paws did not become calloused or dirty during his long and winding journey on foot. I keep hearing in my head a new version of “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” only now Nancy Sinatra (or Billy Ray Cyrus had a great version of the hit tune, too) sings about Charles and his apparently Teflon-strength paws.
I would love to meet Charles and congratulate him on his indomitable strength of spirit and his phenomenal physical endurance. I wonder if he knew somehow that, if he kept walking, he would cross paths eventually with a person who would walk the talk of a Cat Lady and whisk him to safety.
Here’s to you, Charles, and please: no more walkabouts!
Query of the Day: Have you ever lost your cat?
No, thank God, but I've actually had nightmares about them getting out. The feeling of panic is overwhelming and most unpleasant!
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