I & Claudius : travels with my cat

"A cross between Kerouac's "On the Road" and "Animal Hospital".

That's not something you get to say every day. London girl Clare de Vries' account of her road trip across America with her 19-year-old, chocolate-brown Burmese cat, Claudius, is nutty, neurotic and honest de Vries is funny, fast and self-deprecating." - "Conde Nast Traveller".

Clare de Vries dreamed of chucking in her job and Thelma and Louise-ing it around the United States.

Which is exactly what she did. Except that Louise was her nineteen-year-old chocolate brown Burmese cat Claudius.

From celebrity pet hair stylists in New York to brown bears in the Appalachians, from astronauts in Nashville to Elvis' shag ceiling in Graceland to voodoo snakes in New Orleans, the unlikely couple just about kept their Guccis intact and even learnt to read a map.

That was before riding with psychic cowboys in Texas, losing vital body parts in the Grand Canyon, gambling with hoods in Vegas and spilling drinks over film stars in Hollywood.