This week, Laura picked up her cat Luma from the quarantine centre in Melbourne. Her move to Australia is officially complete. To mark the milestone, today’s post tells the story of Luma’s life and travels.

Welcome to the 176^th edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a quote of the week. Along with Luma’s life and travels, this week’s edition looks at plastic-eating robots, laundromat libraries, and banned books in Little Free Libraries.

On my mind this week: Luma the travelling cat

The journey to Australia is long, even for humans. But what does a little cat make of it all? I’ve been pondering this a lot over the last couple of weeks as Laura and Luma made their way to Australia.  

Moving a cat around the world is no small feat. In a country like Australia where rabies is non-existent, the requirements for medical testing and clearance are stringent. But leaving Luma behind was never an option. 

Luma is no stranger to travels. She has seen more of Canada and the world than most adults will see in their lifetime. Here’s her story.

Luma’s Life and Travels

Meow. My name is Luma. I’m a three-year-old tabby from Canada. I’ve had some big adventures in my short life. I can’t wait to tell you about them.

I was born in July 2023 on a farm in southern Ontario. My kitty-mummy is Marble and I came into the world with siblings Boo, Ruby and Shadow.

When I was three months old, my forever mummy Laura wanted a cat. But she lived far away in British Columbia. Laura’s uncle, Daring Dave said, “No problem! What a great excuse for a road trip!”

Daring Dave and his brother rented a van. They put my cat carrier and litter box in the back and drove 4,000 kilometres to deliver me to my forever mummy.

The trip took a few days and I saw lots of interesting sights along the way.

I arrived in British Columbia in October and my new mummy Laura was so happy to meet me.

Life with Laura

I lived a pampered and sheltered life with mummy in Kamloops. The building we lived in was sometimes noisy. Mummy said it’s because there were lots of students living there. I’m not sure what students are, but they make a lot of noise.

I loved to look out the window. Sometimes I even saw birds and deer outside!

Nanna came to visit me from Ontario a few times. Grandad and other friends came to visit too. Matt even came all the way from a faraway place called Australia.

I was a little shy when people visited, so I would hide under the coffee table at first. Once I knew it was safe, I would come out for lots of cuddles.

A new adventure

Now I am three years old and I just had a big grown-up adventure. Let me tell you about it.

First, Matt came to visit. I liked seeing him again. Then, mummy packed up all of our things. Something big was going on.

One day, mummy and Matt put me in my travel kennel and loaded me and all our things into a van. We went for a long drive to a big city called Vancouver. I didn’t mind the car ride. I had a nice long nap.

When I woke up, mummy took me to a place called a cattery. She left me wth the nice people there. I hoped she’d come back soon. 

The next day, someone took me to a very noisy place with bigger birds than I had ever seen before. I heard someone say it was called an airport. I wished mummy was there.

You won’t believe what happened next! They put me inside one of those giant birds. It was dark and noisy. I was scared. What was going on? Were we flying? Where were we going?

I flew inside that bird for a long time until we landed in a place called Auckland in New Zealand. Someone picked me up and took me to a place where I could eat and sleep. But where was mummy?

I stayed in Auckland overnight. The next day, they took me back to the airport to a different giant bird. It was just as dark and noisy but I was brave. It didn’t feel as scary as before.

I flew inside this bird to a place called Melbourne in Australia. There they took me to a big building with other cats and dogs. They put me in a cubby. People came to visit every day, but I missed mummy.

Mummy will never find me here

I was so worried that mummy would never find me there. I didn’t want to eat or play. Really I just wanted to go home.

I began to think I would never see mummy again. Then one day, mummy and Matt came to get me. I was so happy to see them. It was the best day ever.

We drove in Matt’s car for a little while. Now I live in a nice house with lots of rooms to explore and windows to look out of. Some of my favourite toys are here for me to play with and I have a bunch of new toys.

I had fun on my big adventure but I am so happy to be back with my mummy. I love her.

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Three highlights of the week

It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:

• On Monday, Colleen moved into her condo in Charlottetown. The move went well thanks to help from my sister-in-law and brother-in-law who just happened to be there on vacation with their pick-up truck! I’ve had the virtual tour, but can’t wait to visit in person in a couple of weeks.
• On Wednesday, a wild system of thunderstorms and tornados blew through our area. Thankfully, our power stayed on and we didn’t sustain any damage.  
• We welcomed September with some of the warmest weather we’ve seen all summer.

Things I learned this week

Life is all about learning. Here are three things I learned this week:

Plastic-eating robots

Plastic-eating robots are chomping up human-made plastic waste in oceans and waterways around the world. The Ocean Cleanup aims to remove all floating plastic from the ocean by 2040.

This inspiring initiative was started in 2013 by 18-year-old Dutch student Boyan Slat.  

(Source: Reasons to Be Cheerful)

Laundromat libraries and more

Books are a wonderful way to expand our minds, so getting books in the hands of children is always a good thing. The Laundromat Library League aims to do just that.

Started in 2014 in Pennsylvania, these laundromat libraries offer a selection of children’s books for kids to read while their parents do the laundry.

(Source: Reasons to Be Cheerful)

Fighting back against book bans

Here’s more terrific book news. Many owners of neighbourhood Little Free Libraries are stocking them with some of the more than 23,000 books that have been banned from school libraries since 2021.

And the Little Free Library organization’s database has created a tag to help readers find these libraries.

(Source: Reasons to Be Cheerful)

Quote of the week

There are few things in life more heartwarming than to be welcomed by a cat.

Tay Hohoff

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I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.