Fictional Traveller
Tao
1961–
The resourceful Siamese cat who treks hundreds of miles home across the Canadian wilderness with two dogs in The Incredible Journey.
- Owner
- The Hunter family (in The Incredible Journey)
- Years
- 1961–
- Known for
- Fictional Traveller
Tao is the Siamese cat at the heart of Sheila Burnford's much-loved 1961 novel The Incredible Journey and the 1963 Disney film adapted from it. Left in the care of a friend while their family is away, three animals — Tao, a young Labrador called Luath and an old Bull Terrier named Bodger — set off on their own to find their way home, crossing rivers, forests and hundreds of miles of rugged Canadian country together.
Far from being the helpless one of the trio, Tao proves brave and quick-witted throughout, catching food, surviving a near-drowning at a river crossing, and more than holding his own on the long trek. The story of the three animals' loyalty to one another and their determination to get home made the book a classic of children's literature and the film a firm family favourite.
Tao found a new audience decades later: the 1993 Disney remake, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, reimagined the same Siamese cat as the sharp-tongued female cat Sassy, giving the animals talking voices for the first time. Between the two versions, Tao has charmed generations of readers and viewers and stands as one of fiction's great feline adventurers.