Milo, Who Visits the Vet by Her Lonesome, Is Named Old Blighty's Most Adventurous Cat

Milo with Leila Abbou

"Milo has to be the cheekiest, most spirited, and adventurous cat there ever was."
-- Leila Abbou

A three-year-old ginger-colored female named Milo who has car surfed as well as visited the vet on her own has been named England's Most Adventurous Cat.

Milo, who resides with Leila Abbou in Southam, Warwickshire, beat out several hundred other felines from all over Old Blighty in a competition sponsored by Go-Cat, a division of Purina. Natacha Mauvoisin of Go-Cat said that Milo was chosen because of her "amazing sense of adventure and courageous attitude."

For being selected, Milo earned a satellite navigation system for her owner and a year's supply of cat food, a collar, a certificate, and a trophy for herself. Ten runners-up will also receive a year's supply of cat food, a collar, and a certificate.

It is not exactly clear how the winners were selected but Go-Cat's website claims that GPS was used to track the movements of the entrants. Although Milo has been microchipped, collars fitted with GPS are not yet available for cats. Mobile indicators and transponders can be attached to their collars but both of them have a rather limited range and utility.

Nonetheless, Go-Cat's research has led it to hypothesize that an average cat travels more than 19,600 miles in its lifetime and that eighty per cent of this unescorted roaming is done at night.

Milo, however, appears to be an exception to this rule in that most of her known adventures have occurred during daylight hours. Most notably, she was once spotted, willingly or unwillingly, riding on the roof of a stranger's car. Another time she showed up by herself at the vet's office in order to have some incisions removed. Afterwards, she calmly waited around for the vet to call Abbou to come and get her.

She has also become quite a celebrity around Southam. Her rambles have taken her to the public library where she has been treated to a bowl of milk and to a nursery school were she was served bangers.

She often can be sighted hanging out on a bench at the taxi stand and she is apparently savvy enough to obey the traffic lights when crossing the street. She is not universally loved, however. For instance, she was once given the bum's rush by the ailurophobes at the Building Society.

"Milo has to be the cheekiest, most spirited, and adventurous cat there ever was," Abbou is quoted on Go-Cat's website as exclaiming. "But we do lover her, and will probably have many more days of chaos to come."

Home to approximately seven-thousand residents, Southam is located one-hundred-twenty-two kilometers northwest of London. Although it is a quiet town, it is difficult to say if Abbou should be allowing her cat to roam. Her admission that Milo has already had her legs clipped by a motorist testifies, however, to the petit fait that it only takes one cat-hating motorist to run down a cat no matter how small the town.

Market Hill in Southam

Although the English love their wandering cats and dogs, it is difficult to fathom how any conscientious pet owner could willingly allow them to play Russian roulette with the kamikaze motorists who nowadays rule the roadways. (See Cat Defender posts of April 6, 2006 and November 20, 2006 entitled, respectively, "Humphrey, the Cat from 10 Downing Street Who Once 'Read' His Own Obituary, Passes Away at 18" and "Ratty's Taste for Bangers Coupled with His Owner's Negligence Places Terrier's Life in Grave Jeopardy.")

It is also disturbing that Purina and the manufacturer of the GPS system that it is giving away would sponsor such a competition in the first place. In doing so they are encouraging owners to put the lives of their cats in mortal danger by allowing them to roam in dangerous urban streets.

This is another prime example of the predatory nature of capitalism. Purina wants to sell more cat food and the GPS manufacturer wants to peddle more tracking devices even if their actions are at the expense of the welfare of cats.

Photos: Go-Cat (Milo and Leila Abbou) and Wikipedia (Southam).