52% intelligent. 9% modest. More monkey than bear.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

the indisputable leader of the gang....

I just tried to take a cat for a walk.

Now there's something that I never imagined I would hear myself saying. How the hell do you take a cat for a walk?

Well, you use a lead and harness, obviously.


Minou has been gracing us with her presence now for a little over two weeks, and since she started feeling better after a cold, she has proven to be quite an active little tyke. She spends most of her day whilst we are at work either sleeping or pottering about quietly in the kitchen and the dining room, so come evening, she is ready to go. No sooner has she been fed when she sets off tearing around the house on a mad half hour, burning up some of that pent up energy. She calms down a little at bedtime, and although she doesn't really sleep on the bed with us, she has taken to sleeping at the top of the stairs on the landing.

This peace lasts until roughly 05:30 in the morning, when I am suddenly awoken by the tinkling of the little bell attached to her collar and the feel of her paw pressing against my nose. She's pretty much all go after that, haring around the room, walking across the headboard of the bed, and most frightening of all, balancing on the edge of an open window....

The RSPCA have told us that we shouldn't start letting her out of the house for another 4 weeks, but she's clearly starting to chafe at the bit a little. So we bought her a harness with the intention of letting her start to get accustomed to the world outside her vantage point on the breakfast bar in the kitchen.

Actually, she didn't really seem to mind the harness at all and she took a great delight in padding gently around the rather damp garden and carefully examining every nook and cranny. In fact, I think it's more realistic to say that I didn't take the cat for a walk at all: she took me. We certainly pootled around at her pace and did the things that she wanted to do.

Even a tink-tink-tink on her bowl didn't bring her shooting back into the house for her tea, and in the end I had to carry her in after she'd had a bit of a scare when she nearly fell off a little wall.

God. She's been here two weeks and already our lives revolve around this willful little creature.



How do you people cope with children? I'm exhausted just looking after a cat.

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7 Comments:

  • At 8:51 pm, Blogger ian said…

    Much the same way, really. Put them on a lead and let them tire themselves out in the garden

     
  • At 9:27 pm, Blogger Threelight said…

    Aw, nice cat.

    When you say she sleeps at the top of the stairs, it reminded me of my cat. He used to go on to the bed for a little affection, and then move off to sleep at the top of the stairs.

    And then at around about 3 or 4 o'clock, he'd wake you up, by sharpening his claws on the mattress, his "I'm hungry and I also want to go out" routine. Did the trick...

     
  • At 12:40 pm, Blogger Graham said…

    how do we cope with children? love.

    On the other hand, like all cat owners, its now the cats house. you just live in it...

    graham

     
  • At 1:28 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    When my old cat was a kitten we used a harness too to walk it around the garden. It's pretty handy really.

    I wasat the park the other day and someone was walking their rabbit with a harness!

    Crazy times indeed.

     
  • At 8:28 pm, Blogger Lisa Rullsenberg said…

    Awh man, how do you cope with such major cuteness?!

    And on the matter of children; there's a reason we've only ever had one or two cats...

     
  • At 10:03 pm, Blogger Hyde said…

    Walking the cat?!? Somehow, I don't quite think that would work in NYC. Maybe if I took him to the park...

     
  • At 6:06 pm, Blogger YokoSpungeon said…

    I really, REALLY like your cat! She has a very nice, cheeky, friendly little face.

    I normally don't even like cats, but yours is different.

    Ahhh. :)

    PS - the word verification image will not show, hence I cannot log in. Brilliant!

    Yokospungeon xxx

     

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