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Casper: tributes to a furry fare dodger

One cat who preferred four wheels to four paws became a worldwide celebrity as a bus passenger

Does your cat love to go walkabout? Some pets know an easier way to travel — like Casper, a cat in Plymouth, who loved to take the bus around town.

Casper, who died this week at the age of 12, caught the No 3 bus so many times that drivers knew where to let him off.

He even queued patiently with other passengers at the bus stop outside his home before padding on board and curling up on a seat for a ride.

Schoolchildren and workers got used to seeing Casper on the No3 route and often spotted him looking out of a bus window at the local dockyard and naval base.

Casper’s owner, Susan Finden, picked him up from a rescue home in 2002. He always loved to wander off, but it shocked Susan to find out that he was blagging rides on public transport.

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She posted a note about Casper’s travels on a local website and he became an international star, receiving messages from around the world.

This week Susan announced that, sadly, Casper had died in a road accident. She thanked the local bus drivers for looking after him.

A spokeswoman for First bus company said: “Casper touched many people’s lives and clearly had a very exciting life, travelling around Plymouth and who knows where else. I suspect he’s now exploring Heaven and is telling all the other cats up there about the many adventures he had.”

PETS ON THE MOVE

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Foxy

London commuters were stunned to see an urban fox calmly taking the Tube station escalator at Walthamstow Central. He even remembered to stand on the right.

Archie

A black labrador named Archie lost his owner but still managed to catch the right train home. Archie boarded the 8.05 from Aberdeen to Inverness and chose a forward-facing window seat before padding off at his destination: the village of Insch. A signalman spotted him disembarking and contacted his owner. Let’s hope he remembered his Young Puppy’s Railcard.

Ozzy

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An adventurous moggy named Ozzy had the trip of a lifetime when he escaped from his cage in a plane travelling from the Middle East to London. Unbeknown to his owner, he climbed into the plane’s tail and made ten return flights, clocking up 63,000 miles before he was discovered. He survived by munching on airport workers’ sandwiches.