Eel, cat and all that

For years now, Sweetheart Vivienne and I’ve exchanged banter about eels. She insists they travel long distances – say the 1,723 km north from the Melbourne Botanic Gardens to Surfers Paradise[1]. I retort that I’ve never seen an eel slithering up the highway. As usual, of course, she’s right: eels are long distance travellers [2]. Though they swim. And in fact they swim in an energy-conserving manner [3].

Given this, you can imagine my grin when I read this article in yesterday’s Herald Sun [3]. A cat named Timothy who, a microchip check revealed, went missing from his Brisbane home a year ago, was last week found in Townsville – 1,335 km north [4]. An RSPCA Townsville manager concluded that due to Timothy’s good condition (which the photograph verifies), he likely made the journey in a vehicle – either with intentional human help, or as a stowaway.

I concede that cats in general, and Timothy in particular, aren’t independent long distance travellers. But back to eels: if I were one and I needed to travel from Melbourne to Queensland, I’d rather hitchhike than swim. Ho hum.