Taking your cat for a walk

[Globalti]

Here he is just after getting back from the vet, despite the injured legs he jumped up to one of his basking places to catch some early evening sun.

Tsk tsk, you are clearly not au fait with cat terminology. That's not a basking place, that's a tibshelf. Every cat has several around its house.

Our cat enjoys being around us when we're out in the garden, she just hangs around watching and enjoying the odd little game with a twig or something thrown for her to chase.

 

[Night Train]

I remember walking....

It's that thing you can do without a bike when all your legs work....

 

[seashaker]

Gromit and I did it for a short period - our cat went deaf and lost her traffic sense (through old age) and it just wasn't safe to let her out loose, but she hated being kept in. It was a great way to get to know more of the neighbours (terraced street) although probably not one for the shy and retiring. Our cat had a thing for sniffing car bumpers and would go slowly up and down the street doing so before settling down in the sun somewhere, at which point she usually got picked up and taken home so we could get on with other stuff. She didn't seem that bothered by the lead so long as you let her go where she wanted.

Bikepete, if you don't mind me asking, what did you use to cat proof your garden? Was it an off the shelf specialist product or did you make something up yourself? I have 2 housecats but want to get the garden suitable for them. The products I have found are either very intrusive on the garden or very expensive. Cheers Steve..
In the end we cat-proofed our rear yard so she had a secure outside area and stopped taking her for walks, much to our relief anyway.

 

[jonny jeez]

In laws regularly took their cat on holiday to Devon from Cumbria... .

Hold on...what now...they go on holiday from Cumbria to Devon?

Why?

 

[Archie_tect]

Hold on...what now...they go on holiday from Cumbria to Devon?

Why?

F-in-law born and raised in Newton Abbott so visited his side for 2 weeks once a year.

 

[bikepete]

Bikepete, if you don't mind me asking, what did you use to cat proof your garden? Was it an off the shelf specialist product or did you make something up yourself? I have 2 housecats but want to get the garden suitable for them. The products I have found are either very intrusive on the garden or very expensive. Cheers Steve..

Just DIY. We are lucky in that the yard already has walls on four sides (house, high yard wall, shed/garage front, low yard wall) and is only around 12 ft x 12 ft. Not sure how much use my method will be to a non-terrace type garden.

Cat-proofing was basically to stop our cat jumping up over the low wall (she used to be able to tackle the others, but got too old) and to prevent other cats jumping in. So what we did was:
- Build the low wall up to about 8ft height with trellis (with gaps smaller than a cat :-) and metal mesh to match height of the high wall and shed.
- Stretched some bungee cord from shed to house along either side, to support some green garden mesh stuff which was secured with loads of cable ties.That blocks the 'jump down' routes for outside cats, and any escape attempts from inside too. There's a gap in the middle but it's too big a jump down for any cat so far to try, no easy landing points. The bungee elastic keeps the cords in tension and gives them a pleasing curve :-)

So far it's worked well - been up well over a year (or is it two?) and also survived plenty of snow over the winter - the mesh sags a bit under the weight of snow but isn't damaged.

Not easy to get a good pic but this gives an idea:

 

[akb]

We often see a lady round our neck of the woods taking her 4 huge rabbits for a walk. Not good when you have 2 trained Springer Spaniels to walk! Been in quite a few situations...! Fortunatley our springers are trained to 'soft-mouth' retrieve....!

 

[Cubist]

We used to have a cat that would follow us across the fields if we were walking the dog, very much as if he didn't want to be left out. Another cat, a ginger Tom jumped into the car just as we were about to leave for a family caravanning holiday in Scotland. Dad decided to see if he would enjoy coming with us, so we fetched his food and cancelled the cat sitter. He had a fantastic time, happily wandering round the campsites (most were pretty informal bby today's standards, in fact some were just open land) and always returned to the caravan.

 

[thojj]

When Jan,(wife),was 1st diagnosed with a brain tumour my son's kitten,Caspar started following her everywhere,be it the 10 minute walk to the local shop,where he would wait just inside the shop door,or just from room to room in the house.This continued for 10 months from the afternoon Jan returned from the specialist who,without any warning,told her of the tumour.
Every night he would sit at the end of the bed and if Jan got up for,whatever,Caspar would follow.Jans sleep pattern at this time was destroyed by various drugs and worry about most other things.Casper would just lay down on the sofa top,watching,untill Jan moved and then he would silently continue his guard duty.
For all this watching Casper enjoyed a small peice of ham when ever Jan was in the kitchen area.The day Casper decided not to eat his ham we took him to the vets,such was Jans concern.Sadly the very next day,after a night of constant cuddling from all members of the family,we had Casper put to sleep having found he was riddled with cancerous growth.To our wonder the vet offered his opinion that these growths would have taken maybe just short of a year to get to this saturation point.Casper went to sleep in Jans arms and was buried in our country garden on the saddest sunny day of my,then,two young childrens life.

 

[Arjimlad]

My Dad used to take our British Saanan goat, or Soay sheep, with him as he walked to work, tether it out on the police station back lawn, and at the end of his shift, walk them home again. The distance to the station from home was just over a mile.

I think the Soay might have been an effective police sheep, as she would take on anything, and was adept at dealing with naughty dogs.

 

[Globalti]

We used to have a goat called Dilemma (no horns though) who used to break loose from her tether when she was on heat and charge off across the fields to visit a billy goat at the other end of the village. Everybody knew it was our goat so we would get a phone call asking us to come and collect her. We kids would walk down and drag her back through the streets bleating loudy. When we went on holiday we used to put her in the back of the VW Kombi and take her over to friends' houses where she would eat all the grass for them. On one occasion she broke lose so we chased her into a neighbour's very tidy front garden. The neighbour was sitting watching TV with his back to the window as we chased the bloody goat all round his front garden, hooves ripping the lawn to bits, charging through flower beds, absolutely wrecking this poor man's pride and joy. Eventually my Dad grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, which made her bleat very loudly... and still the neighbour sat with his back to the window. He must have got a hell of a shock when he went out to inspect his lovely garden that evening.

 

[fossyant]

All the cats I have had and others I've been in close contact with do what they bloody well like so I think it would be difficult to take one for a walk.

The big difference between a cat and a dog is that you train the dog what you'd like it to do, the cat trains you do what it would like you to do.

+1

 

[Sara_H]

When me an the cat were both still young and wild at heart we lived in a house that backed onto the woodland of a local park. I used to regularly take her out for a tsroll, not on lead though, she would just run along side.
She still follows me to the local shops, which really upsets me as it involves crossing quite a busy road (she's 19 yrs old now though and no mishaps yet, touch wood). When she follows me she adopts a strange gait, she hangs back for a bit then runs past me in stealth mode, then hangs back a bit etc.
I'd love to know whats going on in her head!

 

[Globalti]

Cats and dogs just think they are part of the family pack, they don't know they are different from the humans. When humans go out walking they assume it's a hunting trip and come along (why else would anybody stir from their favourite sleeping place unless it's to go and find food?)

Where dog owners come unstuck is in not understanding the importance of the pecking order in the pack. The head of the household has to exert his or her authority over the dog or conflicts over food and toys can arise because the dog sees family members as subordinate to itself in the pack.

 

[seashaker]

Just DIY. We are lucky in that the yard already has walls on four sides (house, high yard wall, shed/garage front, low yard wall) and is only around 12 ft x 12 ft. Not sure how much use my method will be to a non-terrace type garden.

Cat-proofing was basically to stop our cat jumping up over the low wall (she used to be able to tackle the others, but got too old) and to prevent other cats jumping in. So what we did was:
- Build the low wall up to about 8ft height with trellis (with gaps smaller than a cat :-) and metal mesh to match height of the high wall and shed.
- Stretched some bungee cord from shed to house along either side, to support some green garden mesh stuff which was secured with loads of cable ties.That blocks the 'jump down' routes for outside cats, and any escape attempts from inside too. There's a gap in the middle but it's too big a jump down for any cat so far to try, no easy landing points. The bungee elastic keeps the cords in tension and gives them a pleasing curve :-)

So far it's worked well - been up well over a year (or is it two?) and also survived plenty of snow over the winter - the mesh sags a bit under the weight of snow but isn't damaged.

Not easy to get a good pic but this gives an idea:

View attachment 10147

Just seen your reply! thanks for the info, will have a proper look later on.