Cat goes for a paddle

Oscar and Rob go for their morning paddle.

Geoff Potter

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Paddleboarding in calm conditions - with a cat

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EVERY day Oscar wakes up at 6am, stretches, and shakes away sleep.

He then follows his father, Rob Van Wegan, down to the edge of the Noosa Waters canal and makes himself comfortable on his dad’s standing paddleboard.

Braving the early wake up call would be a feat for most teenagers, but for 14-year-old Oscar it is even odder.

Oscar is a cat.

“I’ve only had the paddleboard for about a month and I noticed every morning I went out Oscar would follow me down and meow at me,” Mr Van Wegan said.

“After a few days it really looked like he wanted to hop on, so I waited for him to come to me and when he was comfortable I helped him down.

“From that moment on, Oscar’s been addicted.”

While Mr Van Wegan paddles for three kilometres Oscar takes pride of place on the front of his board, casually letting his tail drag in the water.

His father concedes, however, Oscar has always been talented.

“When he was a kitten we started bathing him, so he’s always been around water,” Mr Van Wegan said.

“In summer he likes to sit on the first or second step of the pool and watch us swim. He just lays there covered in water.”

Oscar has another impressive skill that puts other cats to shame.

He can catch prawns.

“Oscar sits down by the water’s edge and watches the prawns, then scoops them out with his paw. Then he brings them inside and drops them on the floor,” Mr Van Wegan said.

“There’s just one problem though – he won’t eat raw prawns, so I have to cook his catch before he eats it.”