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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

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Original poster

My cat wants to accompany me on my walks

33 replies

Walkingcatcompanion · 05/02/2021 08:24

Hi
My cat has started to follow me when I go out for a walk. This was quite endearing at first but is now irritating. She's not the brightest cat and will follow me out of her territory so I feel I need to pick her up and go back home. I will need to get my partner to keep her shut in I think, while I go out, but does anyone have any ideas for discouraging her? The other idea I had was to buy a harness and walk her on a lead. She's a tortie and I think she's shred my arm if I tried to harness her.
TIA

OP posts:

samlh · 05/02/2021 08:40

If you have to shut her in, maybe put cat videos on a tablet or TV? If we have to go out (which isn't very often now) we put birds on the TV and Leo sits and watches them for ages.

You might be surprised? She might take to a harness if the end goal is being your walking buddy?

My friend uses a harness for hers, and it took a while to get him used to it but he loves it now :)

dementedpixie · 05/02/2021 08:40

My 2 go walking in our estate but if I want to go further I have to lock the catflap to keep them in (helps if someone is home to unlock it when I've got far enough away) or drive out the estate and park to walk.

Friday night is the cat walking night as I have to put my bins out and the cats know that means we walk too. They don't wear a harness

SavannahMiasMum · 05/02/2021 08:43

You’ll be surprised many are easily able to harness and lead train

LeslieYep · 05/02/2021 08:46

Our lovely tortie does this too! We must look very strange going out for a short walk (getting our toddler used to walking distances) around the houses with a cat in tow, but we love her.
Have also thought of getting a harness but I don't think she'd appreciate it.

Dinasaurcatcher · 05/02/2021 08:50

All 3 of mine do this but strangely only if I turn one way out of the house (towards fields). If I go the other way (towards a road) they don’t bother

dementedpixie · 05/02/2021 08:52

As soon as we start emptying stuff into outside bins and moving them about my 2 get very excited. We sometimes pick up a ginger cat on the way too. They all come back to the driveway after the walk for dreamies

Stealthynamechange · 05/02/2021 08:52

My cat does this too, it must look a sight me, 4yr old ds, dog & cat! Cat only goes so far then waits for us to come back, meowing at us when we do.

dementedpixie · 05/02/2021 08:53

A cat triangle

Gubanc · 05/02/2021 08:56

My previous cat loved doing this. Ot was only cute until one day he got spooked by something and ended up under a car. He survived and I locked him in before we left every time. That only worked if he was still in the house before we had to leave for the school run.

mootymoo · 05/02/2021 08:59

My friends cat goes with them to the park, unfortunately my dog really doesn't care for cats, he's scared of them so stays 3-4m away and barks!

Mabelface · 05/02/2021 08:59

Mine walks me through the churchyard at the back of my house, stops halfway through and waits for me to come back.

Toddlerteaplease · 05/02/2021 09:01

Get one of those pet strollers and take her with you.

Hibernatingnation · 05/02/2021 09:03

Mine does this. She walks with me to the local corner shop, waits outside then walks home with me. Shopkeeper thinks it's hilarious. She also used to come on the school run with me when ds was at primary and often follows him to the playing field near our house. She's basically a dog disguised as a cat .

Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 05/02/2021 09:05

I've had cats in the past who have done this although none of my current lot do.
I used to find that they would come so far, get bored,p and disappear into a hedge/field. On our return (sometimes hours later) they would reappear from the same spot and walk back with us.

Your cat is probably not as daft as you think.

userxx · 05/02/2021 09:07

@dementedpixie not breaking any rules are they, perfect social distancing 😏

FedUpAtHomeTroels · 05/02/2021 09:08

Ours tries to do this too. We either lock him in the porch while we walk, or give him a cat treat outside the back door (take him a minute or two to eat) As we shoot out the front unseen and round the corner before he wanders to the front of the house.

Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 05/02/2021 09:09

Sorry, noticed an extraneous 'p' in my post. It wasn't my intention to suggest the cat did that

Original poster

Walkingcatcompanion · 05/02/2021 09:16

Thanks everyone! My cat isn't so unusual then - phew. I'm going to get a cat harness and see how that goes, but also will need to shut her in while I go on walks.

OP posts:

Cattitudes · 05/02/2021 09:21

One of ours loved going on a walk (with a harness) we took a baby sling (the newborn style not the ones with arm and leg holes and when she was tired would scoop her up and pop her in it. People got a shock if they looked too closely!

lovelemoncurd · 05/02/2021 09:24

We routinely go for mile long walks with the cat and the dog. It is in the woodland next to the house but other people are always amazed. He runs up a tree if another dog comes though. He's always super tired when we get back.

Santaiscovidfree · 05/02/2021 09:29

As a dc we had 2 ddogs and 4 dcats. Out of area ddog walks saw us all loaded into the car (back in the 70's no crates of dpet belts!) all 6 of them went off and all 6 always came back!! Was bizarre! The dcats assumed ddoggy traits imo!! As an adult ddog walks included 1 dcat+1 ddog at most.
Happy days back then!

torquewench · 05/02/2021 09:30

One of mine followed me to the corner shop once, probably about a 10min round trip for me. I was worried about him as i have to cross quite a busy road but I couldnt catch him. He waited outside and walked home again with me and promptly fell asleep on the kitchen floor once we got back.

FetchezLaVache · 05/02/2021 09:32

When I was a teenager I had a cat who'd sit in the hood of my Parka and accompany me for miles!

CausingChaos2 · 05/02/2021 09:34

We used to have a tortie who did this too. Tbh I found it really stressful! I didn’t like her straying from her territory so would walk her back home and lock her in. We had woodland at the back of our house and she’d try to follow us walking the dogs round there too. Be aware they could be easily spooked if they are out of their territory and if they run off in a panic could get lost.

Poppins2016 · 05/02/2021 09:38

My cat does this, but will only go as far as his (admittedly large) known territory.

Had an amusing moment last year while playing with my cat and toddler in the field nearby, only to have a woman realise we weren't playing with a dog, but a cat (he looks like a small dog from a distance)! It was quite a talking point for her.

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