Conference misery::feline_v1

    Wow, I thought my kitties were the only ones who love to hike! Of
    my 5 cats, 3 absolutely love hiking, we have many acres of woods,
    trails, and little mountains behind our home. All I have to do is
    ask who would like to  go for a hike, and the troops are ready.
    They stay very close, but if I walk too fast, they will cry
    "wait for me!". We've gone pretty far, sometimes I have to carry
    the older one for a bit. My cats range in age from 1 1/2 to 16 years
    old. Walking the cats is definately a delight, and sure is more
    fun than walking alone!
    
                                    Denise
    
                 

    One of my cats loved to go on walks in the Fens in Boston. When
    I'd go home to my parents he would also insist on going on walks
    with the dog. But my strangest experience was with a 'cat' at
    Disneyworld.
    
    I was staying with my parents in their camper in Fort Wilderness
    Campground and had decided to take a walk along the nature trails.
    I just stepped into the woods and this small feline animal came
    out to greet me. To this day I still tell everyone it was a bobcat
    kitten. I'm sure it was even if no one else believes me.
    
    anyway, it seemed friendly so I asked if it would like to show me
    around it's home. This was obviously what it had in mind because
    it started walking in front of me. If I lagged behind it would cry
    at me to hurry up. When it decided I was tired it would go off into
    the woods for a short way and I could sit and rest. When I'd had
    enough rest, according to the kitten, it would come out of the woods
    and we'd walk some more. I named it Guia (spanish for guide, tho
    my spelling is probably wrong). It seemed very happy to talk to
    me and would come if I called it. When I got to the end of the trail
    it meowed goodbye and went back off into the woods.
    
    I would not have believed any of this if I'd been anywhere but
    Disneyworld. The people working in the campground DIDN'T believe
    me, but I enjoyed it anyway.
    kris

    Most of our cats will go for walks with us. If anyone is outside
    when we start off we just call to them and usually find we have
    a least one companion. We have also taken our goats with us at
    times - which gets us very strange looks from motorists passing
    by.
    
    Bonnie    

    When we are cat-sitting for my in-laws, who have two daughters from
    one of our litters, everyone goes for walks.  However, being Siamese,
    they all walk in a line:  Mom first, then the girls, then Dad pulling
    up the rear.  When you stop, they all sit down, in a line!  They
    enjoy walking a lot.  The daughters usually are on "vacation" at
    Wellfleet twice a year, and they go on daily walks on the dunes
    with my father-in-law.
    
    J.
    

    My husband and I have leash trained two of our four indoor cats.
    There is no hope of training Monroe, as he becomes very frightened
    of other cats and dogs.  The kitten will also be trained for the
    leash as soon as she grows into the harness.
    
    One of our cats, Winston, is particularly adept at leash walking
    now.  In the summer time, I take Winston into the yard with me while
    I sunbathe.  His leash is attached to a lead that goes into the
    ground with a stake.  He enjoys just being outside and rolling in
    the grass sometimes.
    
    We also take him with us camping and hiking.  You should see the
    looks we get walking around with a cat on the end of our leash!
    Whenever we come upon a dog, Winston jumps up on one of our shoulders
    for protection.  So far, no dog has ever attacked one of us to get
    at the cat.  There is a state park not too far from our house and
    we often take Winston there for walks.  They have hiking trails
    that take you back into the woods and Winston loves to stand in
    the woods and smell all the wonderful odors.
    
    There is a section of the park that has the ruins of some early
    settlers cabins.  Winston spent about a half an hour exploring them
    the first time we went up there.  Now when we go, we plan to have
    lunch at the ruins and Winston settles down in his favorite spot
    while we eat.  It seems very funny to me that his favorite spot
    is what appears to have been a windowsill at one time!  That is
    an indoor cat for you.
    
    Jesse is not as thrilled about leash walking as Winston.  He will
    go along on short treks, but gets too tired on the longer ones.
    Understandable since he is over 13 years.
    
    JoAnn
    

    
    I took my 4 year old Abby for a leash walk over this past weekend.
    It was her first time.  She really seemed to *love* it.  At first,
    she didn't seem to know what was expected of her.  She was facinated
    by everything at once.  Then when she realized that I wanted her
    to walk beside me, she seemed to love the idea.  We walked and jogged
    for about an hour (Abbys are very short haired, so I didn't want
    to stay out longer).  She enjoyed it so much that I'm sure we'll
    do it many times more.  She seemed so pleased when I got her back
    home.  She sat in my lap and purred lowdly for nearly an ghour.
    It's almost as if she was saying "thank you for showing my an entire
    new world that I never knew existed".  In general, I think it blew
    her mind.

        
        When we  first  moved  into  our house last summer, one of the
        cutest things we saw was one of our neighbors out walking with
        his  little terrier-type dog  in  the  evenings.    We  didn't
        realize it at first, but following along after the dog was his
        cat, Champ, unleashed, but quite happy  to  go wherever he and
        the dog went :^}
        
        

    Chauncey takes walks with me every night (no leash, he just tags
    along behind me).  People who are outside really get a kick out
    of it.  What's even funnier is when he can't keep up and starts
    to meow at me in a voice that sounds exactly like he's saying, "mom,
    wait up, wait up!"