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Percy the Scarborough rail passenger has always been a wanderer!
PERCY, Scarborough's railway-mad moggy, has always been a bit of a wild rover, according to his owner.
Percy pawed his way into the limelight when the Evening News revealed on Monday that regularly travelled on his own on the North Bay miniature railway to see the fish and penguins at Scarborough's Sea Life Centre.
Our story has been picked up by the country's media and has appeared in several national newspapers and on TV.
But although owner Yale and Anne Michael, of Green Howards Drive, knew that their cat was a regular at the marine centre, they had no idea he got an awayday to do it!
"We knew he went there but we didn't realise he caught the train," Mr Michael told the Evening News.
"Funnily enough we saw him once when we used the train. When we got off at Scalby Mills my wife saw him and said 'That's Percy!' but we thought he'd got up there by foot."
On his visits to the Sea Life Centre, Percy is a bit of a bird fancier – he particularly likes to take a p-p-p-peek at the penguins.
His owners say Percy has always been something of a free spirit. "He came to us from a farm, so I think that might explain it," Mr Michael said. "He likes to get about and he's always losing the tags with our phone number on them. Sometimes he comes back in the morning, sometimes at night, but he always makes it home in the end!"
Tamsin Mutton-McKnight, general manager at the Sea Life Centre, said Percy likes to sit on a wall near the entrance and sneak in with the crowds, but had never been any trouble.
She said: "The penguins don't like him very much but he'll just plonk himself down, watching the fish in the tanks. He's more well-behaved than some visitors sometimes. He never tries to get into any of our tanks, even though some have open tops, and we never have any problems with him.
"It's just a shame he scares the penguins."
Phil Hart, a guard on the North Bay Railway, said: "Percy comes down every day. He just hops on and hops off the train and knows exactly what time the trains are. The train passengers love him and make a fuss of him, he's a lovely cat."
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Weather for Scarborough
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: North east
