Once again a delightful cat story has made the news, reminding us of the incredible abilities of cats to find their way home over long distances.

The cat is Molly (pictured), and her amazing journey was reported here in New Zealand’s Waikato Times the other day. When Molly’s mother and son owners took her away with them on a long weekend visit to the Coromandel Peninsula, Molly went missing. After two days of fruitless searching it was assumed that Molly had gone bush to become a wildcat, and her owners returned home cat-less.

Last Sunday, after a journey of 150 km over four months, Molly delighted everyone by turning up at her Hamilton home - a home she had only lived in for three weeks prior to going missing.

As impressive as this was, other cats have travelled much further in finding their way home. The top 10 longest distances travelled by lost cats are:

1. “Sugar” - 1,500 Miles in 14 months. Anderson, California to Gage, Oklahoma, USA
2. “Minosch” -1,485 miles in 61 days. Turkey to northern Germany, 1981
3. “Silky” - 1,472 miles in one year. near Brisbane to Melbourne, Australia, 1977-78
4. “Howie” - 1,200 miles in one year. Gold Coast to Adelaide, Australia, 1978
5. “Rusty” - 950 miles in 83 days. Boston to Chicago, USA, 1949
6. “Gringo” - 480 miles. Lamarche-sur-Seine to the Riviera, France, 1982-83
7. “Muddy Water White” - 450 miles in three years. Ohio to Pennsylvania, USA, 1985-88
8. “Murka” - 400 miles in one year. Voronezh to Moscow, Russia, 1988-89
9. “ChiChi” - 300 miles in three weeks. New Orleans to Blanchard, Louisiana, USA
10. “Pooh” - 200 miles in two years. Long Island to South Carolina, USA, 1973-75

Their stories can be found here. Two of these cats managed to find their owners in places they had never been to before, which to me suggests that cats are at least as clever as dogs.