Firetop

For some time now we’ve had a problem going out of the house by foot because our cats (Mindy and Bella) follow us. We don’t want to encourage either of them to go near main roads so have always had to go back indoors and try and run out of the house and down the road… but that usually fails because they think it’s a game. Last night we quietly escaped for a walk after dinner whilst they were sleeping, as we hit the main road something shot out of the bushes and across the road - it was Mindy yelling and shouting greetings in cat speak. This time as it was late, traffic was minimal and going back home all the time has been getting ridiculous, we decided to see how long she would stay with us.

To our surprise Mindy followed us across the road, up some steps, up a hill and past flats and houses for about 500 meters. We were a long way from home and there she was running alongside us - well out of her territory. By then we were growing concerned for her safety so walked the 5 minute stroll back home followed closely by Mindy, to a stranger it would have looked very bizarre! Especially because she sat down and waited for us before crossing the road.

The whole saga reminded me of one evening this summer when Suzie_Q and I were sitting up on the green eating a pizza and a woman passed us with a dog, closely followed by a cat. “She always comes for Bilbo’s walks because she doesn’t like to be left out” said the owner. A quick read online suggests cats going for walks isn’t that uncommon. Apparently ‘To your cat you will always be its “motherâ€?, and when it follows you for short distances it is reverting back to the days when it was a kitten and followed its mother on short trips from the nest’ - so says pawsonline.info. There are even people who put their cats on leashes or in prams to deliberately walk them - see Yahoo Answers and Cats International.

 

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