My cat is suffering from a major identity problem. I usually walk the dogs in the morning before work. Yesterday I looked down to check they were following and I noticed we had an extra guest on the walk. She was running in and out of the trees, chasing the dogs and letting them chase her. We were a good mile from home before I realised she was with us. She walked back home and was panting like the dogs by the time we got in. She is a very strange cat! She came on the walk again this morning, so I have a feeling this is going to be a regular thing.
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Anyone else have a cat that likes to go for walkies?
16 replies
tomatodizzy · 20/10/2015 19:46
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limitedperiodonly ·
21/10/2015 17:24
I came here to post about my cat doing this and found your thread instead 
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This is incredibly long and if you want to get to the point, skip to the bottom.*
I walk him round the block in daylight (city streets) for up to 30 minutes a day unless it's cold or wet - that's his choice to stay in, not mine. No lead. He walks alongside me or in front on the pavement. Sometimes trots. He's never been taught to do that.
Each house has a basement and he explores them for a few minutes and I've noticed he has favourites and completely ignores some others. He comes when I call his name mostly and pays more attention if I rattle some treats.
He can't resist an open door or doors that have brass kickplates - he stares at his reflection. I don't let him go into open doors in case there's a dog or people who don't like cats.
He was my mum's cat and I got him when she died nearly two years ago. He was 11 and had been an exclusively indoor cat with his brother since a kitten. His brother died a few years ago.
In the first spring after she died I let him out into my back garden. It's reasonably secure with 5ft walls. He could climb that - I found that out at the weekend when he jumped over 4ft from a standing start with ease (did I say he was 13?) - but preferred to sunbathe for hours.
I wouldn't let him out alone because I live between two extremely busy roads. He came with me into the front basement when I cleaned the windows or swept up. The walls are about 12ft but there are steps and a gate he could get through but he was more interested in mooching around a bin store under the steps which smelled excitingly of who knows what?
But the front door click had a siren's call because it was forbidden so that's why I started walking him this spring.
I've spoken to more of my neighbours in six months than in the 23 years I've lived here. Everyone loves him. I was hoping for a slightly better image than: 'Oh, you're the cat lady' but that's my lot.
All but two dog walkers round here keep their dogs on leads. The two that don't have friendly dogs. I scoop him up but if I let him out alone, he'd meet them anyway.
As it happens he has no fear, no road sense and thinks everyone is his friend. He wouldn't last five minutes on his own. Everyone so far has been his friend. Loads of people know his name. They don't ever ask mine 
- Which brings me to the point of this shaggy dog tale. We were walking on Monday and I was talking to a woman who was making a big fuss of him when another woman with her small grand daughter butted in.
Her grand daughter was dying to touch him. I said he was friendly and she could. He's a cat though. Unaccompanied cats are more common than dogs so if you were scared of meeting animals, cats would be more of a problem than dogs.
The woman kept her grand daughter away, fair enough. Through she did behave like he was a tiger and one with mange, at that. I'm sure Nobby didn't want to be grabbed either, though she looked like a nice little girl.
Then the woman asked why I was walking him and I said I couldn't trust him out on his own because he's so friendly and so street and traffic clueless after being an indoor cat for 11 years.
Then she said: 'Cats can go out on their own and if they get run over that just happens. I don't understand why you're doing this. It's just a cat.'
WTF has it got to do with her that I spend 30 minutes a day eccentrically trailing after my cat and appearing like a burglar's look out while he mooches round basements?
Thanks if you got this far
tomatodizzy ·
21/10/2015 19:00
I've just started the morning walk away from cars, roads, people and other dogs because my lab is going through a phase of needing to run off after all of those types of "fwends". In the forest he gets to be off lead and safe. That's why I think the cat started joining us, because she always walks a little way when we go towards the road, but she usually gets a bushy tail and runs home before we get to the gate. The forest is behind our house and no roads to access it, so she's quite safe, away from everything but the occasional mule that's wandered off or the wild animals but we pretend not to worry about those.
I guess cats have an inbuilt knowledge about how far it's safe to go, I take it rabbits don't though!
limitedperiodonly that woman was bloody rude! It's funny how being a dog person means you are OK but try being female and having a unusual cat and everyone thinks you're a crazy cat person lady. 
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limitedperiodonly ·
21/10/2015 21:16
tomato I'm glad you had the patience for my screed .
My mum's friend had an alsatian, a mongrel terrier and a cat that he'd take for walks. The cat easily kept up with them. The pecking order was the cat, the terrier and the big good-natured alsatian.
That was a suburb and they kept off the roads, which were busy - that's why she was afraid to let her own cats out. Maybe the presence of the dogs warned other dogs off the cat. He'd have been more vulnerable to attack if he was on his own.
I came on here to post about that woman but also to say that she's the exception. Most people are charmed - but think I'm a bit mad. At least one person per walk speaks to me - and this is that there London where no one speaks - an average of about three and we've had about 10. We've been photographed too.
I don't get what she was on about. I think she thought I was being ridiculous and showy-offy and also inconveniencing her because her grand daughter was desperate to say hello and didn't want to go. I think the woman thought Nobby was vermin.
I really believe he couldn't cope on his own - he's too old. If he'd remained an indoor cat, he'd still be happy with it. But I let him out in the garden and now he has the call of the wild it would be cruel to leave him in. So I compromise between looking like the local eccentric and him getting marmelised under a bus.
tomatodizzy ·
22/10/2015 00:22
Love his name nobby, brilliant. I have two cats, they are brother and sister and chalk and cheese. My other cat would never walk anywhere, sometimes he doesn't even bother to get up when the dog is mouthing him, he is permanently covered in labradog slobber and just sits there purring. He hates going outside too. Smudge is the opposite, she loves being outside and is a real live wire, not even a year old yet and has taken on three deadly snakes (we're not in the UK) and had a three day adventure where she climbed (undetected) into a guests car and found her way home from four miles away. She was 10 weeks old! She generally gives the dogs a good smack if they look at her the wrong way, so it's nice she's interacting with them now.
I think a cat going for walks is great. I used to live in London, I would have stopped for a walking cat.
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