Let him roam, owner says: Chase the Christchurch celebrity cat

Christchurch cat explorer gains thousands of online fans

Wanted posters have sprung up around Christchurch for an explorer named Chase. But unlike your traditional 'wanted' poster, this one is to tell people that it is ok for Chase to roam.

Chase is a cat.

With Chase attracting regular attention - and occasionally going missing - his owner Nick White resorted to posting the messages about town and starting a Facebook group for Chase, hoping to teach people how to look after the wandering cat's best interests, with messages such as: "If I tell you I am hungry, do not believe me. If you meet me, please pat me and tell me to go home."

The Facebook page Has Anybody Seen Chase? now attracts regular updates with paparazzi-like shots of the celebrity cat on his latest exploits. Sometimes in quite unexpected places.

White told Checkpoint: "About six months ago he all of a sudden hit his teenage years, and just left. And now he comes home exhausted and doesn't really have any time for us anymore."

"He disappeared about 10 o'clock this morning and we haven't seen him all day. He comes and goes."

Chase's visits include a Mexican restaurant, Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre, he has been seen trying to get into a hotel by Victoria Square, and wandering up and down the Bridge of Remembrance.

"I'm not sure if he's actually aware of his fame," White says. "He's gained weight - he's definitely gained fame weight, because I think his fans - despite the posters mentioned - have been feeding him, and he hangs around a lot of ice-cream shops.

"He sleeps upstairs in a whisky bar, apparently, which has been great - on Regent Street.

"He likes to hit the streets on big rugby weekends or Saturday nights, and wander round getting pats and dropped kebabs, I think."

While Chase "tends to go in one direction, toward the central city", videos of black cats wandering through houses and yards, that do look like Chase, have also been sent in.

"Because he's a pretty generic black cat, it's difficult to tell," White says.

But problems have arisen when about seven or eight times, people have found Chase, thought he was lost and taken him with them.

The cat is now equipped with a distinctive orange high-vis collar, with the url for his Facebook page embroidered on it: "We're just trying to use the Facebook page as a GPS, so we know where he's actually been," White says.

"The longest he's been away for is about 13 days, and we thought he'd been kidnapped or something."

"[Once] he got stuck between two buildings in Cathedral Square. [He's been] taken as far as Ferrymead out by the beach, and [we've been] having to pick him up from vets."

Local vets know who Chase is, and regularly advise people who call them about the cat to leave him be and just put him back down. But sometimes people still insist on delivering the cat to the vets' care, White says, and he gets another call-out to pick him up.

"Which is terribly annoying - he just wants to go adventuring."

If Chase can be left to own devices - apart from pats and scratches - he'll be fine wandering, and will keep bringing joy to those he meets, White says.

"He's absolutely hanging out with some of the unhoused members of the community, and there are people who see him regularly on the way to work. We get a lot of people that just go into town to find him."