Australian cat starts transcontinental journey home

A cat that went missing three years ago in the chilly far south of Australia and turned up earlier this year in the tropical far north will begin the 3,800-kilometre journey back home on Tuesday.

A cat that went missing three years ago in the chilly far south of Australia and turned up earlier this year in the tropical far north will begin the 3,800-kilometre journey back home on Tuesday.

Katrina Phillips said she had given up hope of recovering Clyde, a long-haired Himalayan, and was overjoyed to learn he would be coming home.

"We just can't believe he's alive. It's just unbelievable, and it's so emotional," she told Hobart's Mercury newspaper. "We did everything to try to find him. We door-knocked, did letterbox drops and advertised in the paper, but there was no trace of him."

Clyde was presumed a stray when he was taken in by a nurse in Cloncurry in far-north Queensland. A scan during a veterinary exam three months later revealed a microchip that identified Clyde's owners.

The nurse was happy to give him up, reasoning that a furry Himalayan would be better suited to frosty Hobart than hot Cloncurry.

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