I have been taking Frankie for a walk almost every day since my job went out of business. This means there are many more chances for meeting stray or outside cats. Yesterday, a stray saw us and started walking toward us.
I thought it might be a friendly encounter but Frankie had something else in mind.
I can’t help but wonder what happens when he escapes and is gone for three hours.
By the way, I did accept a job offer yesterday so I will be spending less time at home soon.
I get notifications from Google and Microsoft highlighting photos from this day. Today I saw this one that I didn’t remember from 2015.
I then noticed a video from the same time. I checked YouTube to see if I had posted it there. I did.
I also noticed another video from earlier that month that was still marked as a draft. It was a video of Frankie’s first time on a leash and harness. I don’t know why that video was older than the one above. Perhaps I had too much trouble with that harness so I decided to continue to let Frankie out without a leash. I did put it on upside down that time and didn’t notice until we were outside.
After these videos, Frankie proved too much of a wild spirit and would take off far beyond the backyard. Because we lived close to a main road, I had to start using a harness every time he went outside.
Sunday afternoon I was bringing a handful of laundry outside to the washing machine in our shed. I had just fed the cats and saw Frankie in the kitchen with his head in the food bowl. I figured it was safe to open the door, which I did quickly, and turned around to walk out backward so I could catch Frankie if he tried to get out. I obviously did it wrong because there was a second between when I cracked the door open and when I was turned around enough to see Frankie’s tail wiz past me.
He immediately went under a vehicle so I couldn’t catch him.
I talked to him nicely and managed to coax him out a bit.
I should have tried to grab him then but I worried if I missed I would never catch him. Instead, I had an idea. I went back into the house and grabbed his harness. When I got close, I pulled it apart. He knows that the sound of the velcro means he is going for a walk so he came out and let me put it on. Unfortunately, I was rushed and put it on upside down. In the process of trying to reverse it, I nearly freaked him out a little. Before he got too nervous I turned it around and soon we were walking.
We did some sitting too.
We made our way to the clubhouse where I think a bingo game just ended. There was an old lady in a car with the window down marveling at a cat on a leash. I talked to her for a minute but Frankie was interested in the door that was propped open. He stuck his head inside to the delight of another two older ladies.
Eventually, we made it back relatively close to home, perhaps half a block. Frankie decided to take a rest in someone’s yard.
I let him stay for a short time but since he was literally against someone’s house I decided to pick him up and bring him home before we got yelled at.
Frankie does not care that he is on the sidewalk leading to the pool. When he is ready to crash, he crashes.
Often on my walk with Frankie, we see many squirrels and birds. Sometimes they are close enough to prompt an attempted attack, which is thwarted by the leash or by me running alongside Frankie and making too much noise. More often than not, the birds or squirrels are far enough away to warrant only a curious look.
Here, Frankie is probably hoping the bird will wander into the danger zone.
I took Frankie for a walk on Saturday. Sometimes he gets very vocal and won’t shut up until I take him out, then he is as quiet as a church mouse.
We started at our next-door neighbor’s house where Frankie had to do a thorough inspection of her bushes. I didn’t want to be standing right in front of her house, so I picked up Frankie and moved him to our side. Just then I heard her car door shut and then watched her drive away. “Okay, Frankie. Smell away.”
From there we walked across the street where we encountered a woman walking a small Yorkie. Surprisingly, the dog wasn’t barking. The woman thought Frankie was very cute and was amazed that he let me put a harness on him. While we were talking, Frankie walked up to the dog, the two of them smelled each other for a few seconds, and then Frankie quickly lost interest and continued walking.
We walked through the grass toward the pool. When we got close to the pool we encountered several people and dogs. To our left was a woman walking a small, white dog who was barking at Frankie. To our right were four people and two dogs in a parked golf cart. The dogs were not small but not huge either. The woman in the driver’s seat was so impressed by a cat walking with a leash and harness that she got out and walked toward Frankie with her phone because she wanted to video him. While she was doing that, Frankie started toward the barking dog.
When Frankie get to within five feet of the dog he stopped and changed directions. I think it was the woman who distracted him because he walked up to her and let her pet him. He then continued toward the golf cart where everyone was ooohing and aaahing. I’m not sure if Frankie liked the attention but he sure was encouraging it. He walked up to the golf cart, stopped and looked at the dogs for a second or two, and then continued on.
After that, he spent a little time rolling on the ground.
He followed that up with some grass-eating.
Finally, it was time to rest and to see how long Dad could put up with standing around waiting.
It occurred to me that if I wasn’t already happily married, and if I didn’t live in an old people’s community, walking a cat would be a great way to meet girls.
I took Frankie out for a walk on Saturday. Everything went well for the first ten minutes or so. He did the usual. He smelled some plants, rolled in the grass and sat and listened to the birds.
We ended up near our community’s clubhouse about a half block from home when a nearby car’s alarm went off. Frankie didn’t do anything at first, he just seemed concerned. Then, after a few seconds, he started running.
I should note here that anything other than a very gentle tug on the leash will cause Frankie to turn toward me and then back away with as much force as he can muster. This always leads to him slipping out of his harness, which is extremely easy to put on but not secure when Frankie backs up. Because of that I always try to keep pace with Frankie. If he runs, I run. Usually he hears the sound of my footsteps and that freaks him out a bit so he stops and looks around. That is what happened Saturday when he started running.
After he stopped and looked around, the alarm was still going off so he started running again, and again he stopped when he heard me. By then we were far enough away from the car and the alarm may have been stopped, I don’t remember. I just remember that I thought the running was over so I loosened my grip on the leash. Just then he started running and the leash slipped from my hand.
He was heading straight for home and running at full speed. I tried to keep up but couldn’t. I assumed when he reached our house he would wait by the front door until I could open it. He didn’t. Instead I watched him squeeze through a small hole and go under our house.
He has done that before and it is always a concern but this time it was especially scary to me because he was dragging a leash behind him. I had no Idea how far under the house he would go or what, if anything, the leash might get caught on while he was under there.
When I got home I immediately peeked through the hole and saw he was just sitting there, about three or four feet in. I pulled some bricks away to make the hole bigger and tried to talk him out of there but he wasn’t having it. He seemed nervous, which is unusual for Frankie because he pretty much ignores the vacuum cleaner and barely notices when the garbage truck comes by for our trash.
I fed them a short time before we went out but I thought I might entice him out with some tuna that I bought recently for a special treat for them. I went in the house, opened the can and put it on three plates, because Chris and Floki smelled it and were in the kitchen waiting for some. I put two plates down then brought the third plate outside and put it in front of Frankie’s nose but he ignored it and instead was more concerned with what was happening across the street.
I gave him some time and after about five minutes he decided to come out but his right paw was stuck in the harness. Fortunately he was able to move close enough for me to pull him out. During all that excitement, I forgot to take pictures.
After I put him in the house I went back out and got his plate of tuna. He eagerly ate it all. All’s well that ends well, I guess.
Since returning from West Virginia, Frankie and Chris have enjoyed much more outside time, although not as much as they would like. Our trips outside usually start with Frankie who gets really excited when he knows, or thinks he knows, when I am getting ready to take him out. My wife has to get him even more excited by saying things like, “Are you going outside, Frankie? Oh boy, you’re going outside!”
Once outside, after the initial excitement wears off, we usually spend time smelling stuff, especially plants.
When the smelling is done it is time to lie in the dirt.
Sometimes he pulls a Harry Houdini on me and starts to slip out of his harness.
When that happens it is usually too risky to try to fix it “in the field” so I will pick him up and carry him home while he hisses at me the whole way there. Usually, by that time we already had a good walk and Chris is at home waiting for his turn.
The first thing Chris does when he gets outside is do the “happy roll.” This is something I never see him do inside.
He then does a little exploring but he usually stays close to home which is why he doesn’t need a harness, although I still need to watch him because he sometimes wanders away.
Eventually he finds some grass to munch on.
After that he sometimes lies down for a few minutes and is then ready to go inside. I don’t have to carry him home while being hissed at.
Anyone else have inside cats that go out?
Here is Frankie on a recent walk. During our walks, he often takes a time out for some rest and relaxation.
Frankie and I went for a nice walk the other day. The first thing Frankie needed to do was get a good sniff on a nearby car.
The cat that he met on a previous walk may have left him a message there.
It was a warm day so we needed to stop in the shade for a while.
Then it was on to the traditional roll in the dirt.
And then more rolling in the dirt.
Finally we stopped to rest on some nice, comfortable concrete.
On a side note, I forgot to mention that Frankie’s paw improved on it’s own after he hurt it a couple of weeks ago. By the next day he was walking fine. I still see him holding it up in the air sometimes though. I don’t know if it bothers him or if that is just something he does. I will have to watch him more closely.
Bad Cat Chris 