Casper The Commuting Cat: The True Story Of The Cat Who Rode The Bus And Stole Our Hearts

The next day a photographer arrived to take a picture of Casper. I was horrified when they asked me to be in some photographs too – it was pouring with rain and I certainly didn’t feel camera-ready. Casper was getting fidgety and he was very wet. He desperately wanted down, and I realized it was because there was a bus coming. As it came closer, I shrieked that it was the wrong bus. In my mind, it had to be a First bus that was in the picture, as those were the ones that Cassie liked; however, the photographer said it didn’t matter, and started snapping away. Those pictures of Cassie with ‘the wrong bus’ went around the world, and are doing the rounds to this day – an inaccuracy that really bothers me.

The photographer finished up and left. Edd said that the story would be in the papers the next day but it turned out that something else happened, which meant it wasn’t there when I looked. ‘Never mind, Casper,’ I said to him ‘It was never meant to be.’ I knew that not all stories ended up in the paper, and I assumed that Casper’s tale wasn’t quite as important as other things. With all that was going on in the world, perhaps the editor had decided that the paper was better filled with rather more serious tales after all.

I didn’t know whether to feel disappointed or not. I suppose I’d got rather carried away with the excitement of it all, even though I’d never felt that comfortable to begin with. Now that it had ended as a bit of a damp squib, Casper and I were back where we’d started – which was fine. We were happy then, we’d be happy now At least I had information about what he got up to and many more new friends to talk to on the bus every day. I believed that the article had been passed over, and things would go on as before – how wrong I was.

CHAPTER 16

Five Minutes of Fame

When I opened the newspaper on Wednesday, 29 July 2009, I could hardly believe my eyes. Casper was in the Plymouth Herald

after all, a few days later than we’d anticipated. Of course, I’d spoken with Edd; I’d known that he was going to write the story, but seeing it in black and white made everything real. There was my Cassie in the paper where all of Plymouth could read about his adventures. I later found out that because there had been an ongoing story about a different bus company that had taken over the headlines for a few days, they had thought it best to leave another bus story until there was more space. Now that time had come.

It felt surreal to see Cassie’s story plastered over the pages of the Plymouth Herald. Edd’s article read:

Carefree commuter Casper is a regular passenger

Meet Casper, the commuting cat who’s fast becoming a celebrity on Plymouth buses. Regular users of First’s number 3 service may recognize the fluffy feline, who has been driving his owner up the wall with his constant trips to the city centre.

The adventurous cat politely queues behind other passengers at the bus stop outside his Barne Barton home, then quietly trots on board and curls up on a seat for the ride. But far from causing mischief he has proved a hit with drivers and customers alike, who always make sure he returns home safely.

Casper’s journey takes him from just outside his house in Poole Park Road to the final stop at Royal Parade and back, via St Budeaux Square, HMS Drake, Keyham, Devonport and Stonehouse.

His owner Susan Finden has only just found out about his antics – but First Group have been bussing Casper around for months.

Susan, who picked him out of a rescue home in 2002, said he had always been a free spirit; she named him Casper after the cartoon ghost when he immediately started giving her and husband Christopher the runaround with regular ‘disappearing acts’.