America’s First Female Cruise Captain Travels the World With Her Adorable Sphynx Cat

Some cats have all the luck.

Even though they may have reputations for being fastidious and hard to please, it turns out, cats are pretty good travelers — especially this Elf Sphynx named Bug Naked.

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Much like Vladimir the cat, who travels with his people to national parks or little Amelia sailing around the world with her human, Bug Naked lives on the go with Instagram-famous cruise captain Kate McCue, who often features the feline on her feed.

McCue herself has a pretty impressive resume beyond being a social media star. According to The Telegraph, McCue has worked for cruise lines for about 13 years, and will soon take on Celebrity Cruises’ new flagship, Celebrity Edge, as captain.

On top of this, McCue became the first female cruise ship captain in America, according to The Telegraph. “Everyone has a stereotypical idea of a captain and I'm missing some pounds. I don't have entirely gray hair. I don't have a beard or a parrot but I think when the guests meet me they're pleasantly surprised,” told CBS about her job.

McCue had dreamt about captaining a cruise vessel since she was about 12. Her father said to her, “You can do anything you want in the world, including drive this thing,” according to CBS. So McCue started to work on making her dreams come true, starting as a cadet at the California Maritime Academy in 1996.

“I think this is the greatest job in the world...traveling, meeting all these people, getting paid for it. It's amazing." McCue told CBS.

And what makes McCue entirely unique, other than breaking glass ceilings, is her open and honest approach to the job. While some captains prefer to keep a degree of separation from guests, McCue abandoned having a “Captain’s Table” at dinners and frequently places herself out with the passengers so anyone can talk to her if they wish, according to The Telegraph.

“Back in the day you had these tyrannical captains that you couldn’t speak to unless they spoke to you. Over the 20 years I’ve seen the rounding of rough edges of these people. Or, if they couldn’t adapt there was no place for them on board the ships,” she told The Telegraph.

She’s also just as open to others online as she is offline.

McCue has over 60,000 followers who keep up with her adventures at sea. Her Instagram feed is full of beautiful shots on the water, fun photos of her daily life as captain, her husband Nikola, and, of course, her travel companion Bug Naked.

“My posts are kind of geared [to show that there are] lots of opportunities in this job. And, if you see it, you can be it,” she said to The Telegraph.

And at every opportunity Bug Naked is there as her little sidekick. The cat even has 18,000 followers on her own dedicated Instagram for travel and cat-lovers alike.

“[Bug Naked] is neither an emotional support animal nor the world's ugliest Chihuahua (although she gets that often) . She's my sidekick, my little naked bundle of joy & the reason I get out of bed. At 4 a.m. E.V.E.R.Y.D.A.Y. And I wouldn't have it any other way,” McCue wrote in an Instagram post.

It’s clear that both McCue and Bug Naked are well suited to the cruise lifestyle.

“God willing, I have another 40 years in me as captain,” McCue told to The Telegraph.

You can follow Kate McCue on Instagram for wanderlust-inspiring photos (including some featuring an adorable Sphinx cat), or follow Bug Naked for cat photos 24/7.