Puss in routes! Cat who hitched around Europe
MANY cats are at their happiest when roaming near their homes.
But Nala the tabby is more adventurous than most moggies and has travelled thousands of miles across Europe – on a bicycle.
She was found as a kitten by Scots backpacker Dean Nicholson, who rescued her from the roadside on the Bosnia-Montenegro border.
She then joined him on his cycling tour – in a custom-made basket on the front of his bike, where she loves to feel the wind in her fur.
Now the former stray is the subject of a forthcoming book about her extraordinary journey.
The unlikely duo have been touring Europe together for nearly two years. Despite travelling on a budget, they have been living an enviable lifestyle, from basking in the sunshine on a Greek beach to freewheeling through the streets of Budapest.
On International Cat Day, August 8, Mr Nicholson made sure she enjoyed a sunny Mediterranean view. She has even donned her very own tiny lifejacket and taken to the water at the front of her new owner’s kayak.
Their amazing trip is on hold due to the coronavirus restrictions that have made them pause in Hungary, but Mr Nicholson, 32, credits his feline friend with changing the course of his life. Feeling depressed and disillusioned with his job as a welder, he decided to try to cycle across Europe and left his home town of Dunbar, East Lothian, in September 2018.
He said: ‘This little cat has changed my life. Before I started on this epic bike journey I’d been in danger of going down the wrong path in life. Since I hooked up with
Nala, she has given me a purpose to life and reason to grow up.’
Mr Nicholson first encountered Nala – no more than a little striped ball of fur – when she ran alongside his bike one day on a dusty road.
Puffing his way up a steep hill, he suddenly heard a desperate meow behind him. Noticing a tiny kitten, he decided to stop for a moment to pet her and move on. However, Nala had other plans, instantly showing him huge affection and refusing to leave his side.
Mr Nicholson realised that, as they were in the middle of nowhere and she was desperately hungry, she must have been dumped.
Taking pity, he decided to carry her as far as a vet – but she found her way into his heart instead.
Naming her Nala, after a character in the hit Disney movie The Lion King, he took her with him.
She has now visited 14 countries, including Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece and Turkey.
Mr Nicholson said: ‘I vowed to Nala when I found her that I wouldn’t leave her. And here we are, in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, away from home and without a clue what’s going on.
‘But as long as she’s happy and healthy that’s all that matters.’
Writer Garry Jenkins, who worked on the bestseller A Street Cat Named Bob about a homeless man caring for a stray on the streets of London, has co-authored the new book.