Cat naps in UK and wakes up in Canada

CATS sleep anywhere. Any table, any chair. And - as John Pearson, an airline purser, discovered - for 3,200 miles en route to Canada in a suitcase in the luggage hold of a Boeing 747.

Mr Pearson discovered Katie, his four-year-old pet, while unpacking in his Montreal hotel room and was astonished to find her none the worse for wear after a marathon Bagpuss snooze. Unfortunately, the stowaway had to settle for six months' quarantine in Canada instead of returning to sleepy Chiswick, in west London.

Yesterday Mr Pearson, who works for British Airways, returned to Britain with Katie, after her quarantine, and admitted that he had not recognised the dishevelled animal that sprang from his suitcase.

He said: "When I first saw her I thought she was three-legged because she had a paw caught in her collar. She was limping round like a three- legged pirate.

" She must have climbed into the deep half [of the suitcase] and must have fallen asleep. I think she has certainly used up one of her nine lives."