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I've had cats most of my life. I've also had dogs, rabbits, hamsters and a twenty-five gallon fish tank. At the moment, we are down to one cat and that inherited-from-the-kids already mentioned, complete with a ten inch long algae eater and one lone tetra. The tank is another story entirely … now for the cat.
Sapphire Samurai is Balinese, the long haired relative of the Siamese. He is mostly blond, which explains why his favorite place to sleep is the brand new, chocolate brown sofa. I may never get all the cat fur out of it. He has gorgeous blue eyes, since the name and he knows he is the king of the castle.
One of the things he likes to do most is go outside. Unfortunately, he is half blind, geriatric and has not a particle of common sense. We live on a very busy street, so he can not go out on his own. This brings me to one new law proposed in a city in New England. They want to make it mandatory the felines be on a leash when outside.
Can you walk a cat?
Yes, but it will not be anything like your experience walking a dog. I get snickers from the neighbors when they see me walking along the cat, in whatever direction he wants to go. To be honest, it's a lot more like the cat is walking me, as I have little option about the direction. At best, I can keep him from going further in a direction I do not want to go.
Most of the time, when he's out, he's on a twenty foot dog lead anchored to the lamp standing in the front flower garden. He can not get into much trouble in that range, but he tries. His favorite occupation while on this lead is to roll on the pavement. The bet place to roll is always where there is the most stuff that can get lodged in his long, fluffy fur. His second favorite thing to do is stalk squirrels.
I'm not talking about skinny, timid critters here. We have an avocado tree which is home to a family of them. They like this tree because they can eat avocados all day long. It gets frustrating for us mere humans, because their idea of eating the fat filled fruits is to take one bite out of this one, and the next bite out of that one, etc.
When one is cornered in the tree, one of two things will happen. If the squirrel thinks there's any possibility of the cat reaching him, he becomes one with the branch. "Nothing up here but us avocados …" If he's out of arms way he will start loud chebling his anger at the cat. Both can be amusing. Thankfully for both cat and squirrel we intervene before anything untoward happens.
The second proposed law is getting a cat license. There are good points to this idea, even though it is probably only done to increase city revenue. If the cat has a license on its collar and does happen to get loose, the animal shellter knows who to call. The proposed fee is half that of dogs, and one that bought to be considered by all parties.
Owning a pet of any sort demands something of the owner. It's not about dominance over the animal, but dominion. They offer use companionship, free mouse hunting and other benefits. It's our obligation to make sure they are healthy, well fed and well looked after.
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Source by Mary Bodel
