Walking the cats

I've been trying to leash-train the cats so that I can take them out for walks without them running away. It's been...interesting. Turns out that Marvin looooves it outside - I have to fight him to come back in and now he's always dashing for the door. Whitey actually hates it outside - he gets spooked by every little noise and ends up climbing me like a tree.

I got them harnesses and elastic-y leashes - Marvin's harness is a little too small and Whitey's is a little too big. But I wanted to try them out anyway. The first time I made the mistake of taking them out at the same time. Marvin was running away from the door and Whitey was running towards it. I was in the middle with my arms stretched in either direction wondering what I was going to do (and laughing hysterically at the same time!). I was bent over so the leashes would stretch farther and Whitey took that as a sign to climb me and hop on my back. This solved my stretching problem, but created a new one...how to hobble over to the door remaining bent over and dragging Marvin with me. Took a little doing, but we got it done - everyone got back inside just fine.

Then I took each one out individually - Marvin first. He loved it. He inspected underneath all the cars, checked out some mud, looked longingly at a bird, etc. All the usualy cat things. Then I took Whitey out. He hated it. He briefly inspected a bush, but then he heard a car start and it was over - I became a tree and his goal was to get to the top. Needless to say I had both hands free to open the door and block Marvin from running out.

Last night after work I decided to try again. I would like to say that I learned something from the first time, but sadly I did not. Marvin and I went a little further this time - he even climbed part way up a tree! I'm working on getting him to come back to me when I stop moving - it's actually going surprisingly well. Whitey and I didn't get very far. We went and sat on the stairs outside my door, with me holding him. He was starting to venture off my lap when a car drove up. That was it - he scrambled out of my arms and up the stairs as far as the leash would let him. I tired to coax him down, but he was spazzing out a little. Finally, I went up the stairs and grabbed him. Right at that moment a car door slammed and he freaked out, climbing up me again. He somehow ended up on my back with me bent over slightly holding on to the leash - I'm sure it looked a little like I had him slung over my shoulder, but he had his claws dug in so the leash was slack. It felt good. We finally made it back inside, managing to block Marvin from running out again.

I think it turned out being slightly stressful for all of us - everyone got something they wanted but no one was completely satisfied. That must mean I'm doing something right!