The cat coming along when we walk the dog

[Pldgy]

A while ago I bought a tracker for our cat because we moved out for a month and took her with us with the plan of keeping her inside the new house for that time, so I wanted security of the tracker in case she got out. I was also curious as to where she went (before we moved out for the month) but found out that she barely left the reach of our wifi.

Every now and then she will be outside as we go out to walk the dog and she will follow us for a bit before she gets spooked and heads for home.

Is there any sensible way of encouraging her to come with us? She doesn’t wear the tracker now as clearly she wasn’t roaming far! So I don’t want to encourage her too far and then she gets scared by a dog or something and runs off and gets lost.

We adopted her from a rescue where she’d been brought in as a stray, so she possibly has form for getting herself lost.

Cat harness? I can’t imagine successfully getting one on her 😂

Cat Tax

Don't try to encourage her. Cats have very defined boundaries and although she's not a tom so it won't be so dangerous, but she could get unwanted attention.

Oh really? That’s a shame but makes sense. She seems so interested when we’re heading off 😕

Lovely cat!

My rescue was a real scaredy-cat and never ventured far either. Would just sit under a bush until you let her back in.

I would have been nervous of her following us, for reasons you touched on. I wanted her to be able to teach home quickly if spooked.

Is it important to you that she follows for longer? I think her behavior is typical of that special subset of cats that follow their families on walks. It’s never for the entire outing 😉

Reach

Not important, no. I just liked the idea of showing her the wider world 😂

Our Cat does the same. Lines up by the door with the dog and comes out at the same time. Walks with us about 1/2 way up the street then stops and waits for us to return.
She’ll hide and pounce out on the dog as she passes and they race home 😂

Don't encourage her to wander. The world is a dangerous place for cats- cars, dogs, nasty people around. She is much better staying in your back garden.