leashes |

People ask me how I trained Jacoby to wear a harness and go out on his leash. Truth is, I really didn’t. I just put a harness and leash on him when he was 3-1/2 months old and he did the rest.

It was just a matter of taking him out, doing things with him, and exposing him to all sorts of different things. The other night, walking home from the hospital, we walked across a bridge while a Commuter Rail train passed underneath. Jake didn’t so much as twitch an ear as it rumbled under his feet.

Sometimes I get spoiled by how bulletproof he is. This was Sunday at the cat show while I was packing up. Jake didn’t want to be in his carrier, and I’d taken down his cage already, so I just let him sit on the table. And he just sat there. I think he knew it was either stay put or be shut up in a bag!

Check this out…Abyfriend Katscan’s little girl Rosie is making it big on the CBC Vancouver Facebook page:

Would you put your cat on a leash? Early Edition listener Kathy sent us this photo of her cat Rosie. (MJ)

My favourite comment was someone who said Yes, if it was a Bengal cat, otherwise no. I listed off the Abys I know who go out and about on their leashes, mentioning Jafari in Vancouver, Radar in NYC…and of course, Jacoby in Boston!

Click to watch the video!

You can see Kathy and her boy Aby Louis on the Vancouver evening news on the CBC website – her interview is part of an article about the number of birds cats kill and the possibility of Vancouver passing laws requiring cats be leashed and licenses.

The recent trip to Boston Common Jacoby and I took last weekend, and the children we met with, reminded me of the first time we went to the Common.

This was our first outing of the spring, the first day it was warm enough to go outside after a long Boston winter. Jake, having been born in April, didn’t get a lot of outdoor leash-walking practice during the previous summer before it got too cold to go out.

Nevertheless, he marched around the park like a pro. I always say that he’s a natural when it comes to walking on a leash, and this is why. I’ve had a lot of leash-trained cats in my life, but Jake has always been the most at-ease.

When we met this little boy, it didn’t faze Jake one bit.

That’s another thing about Jake that has always amazed me. He just likes little kids. I think, in fact, that this was the first child he ever really met. And he was so good with the boy, and so relaxed, it was like he had been raised around children.

This is why I want to find a therapy gig working with kids. I think Jake would really be awesome at it. He just naturally seems to appreciate human kittens.

Thanks to Abyfriend Katscan for this link to an article in today’s Vancouver Sun: For jogging Vancouver cat, life’s a walk in the park

(Photo via the Vancouver Sun)

Jafari Jamison Underfoot, or JJ as he is called by his friends, is another Aby who loves to go out with his people on adventures (and another Canadian Aby, too). I had to laugh when I read his story and looked at his photos, because he reminds me so much of Radar, the Central Park-going Manhattan Aby. And, of course, Jacoby and me (especially the part about being “cat ambassadors”).

I don’t know if Vancouver is just happy to have some non-hockey-related news to report (oh, snap!) or if they just really love Abys at the Vancouver Sun, but they really did a great job of showcasing JJ; along with the story, there is also a video showing JJ running with his humans as well as an extensive photo gallery showing JJ’s adventures both at home in Vancouver and on vacation in Seattle!

Be sure to check out JJ’s Facebook fan page, too.

Just for fun, I looked up Port Coquitlam Abyssinian breeders, and turns out, there’s just one: Abayomi Abyssinians. This is the breeder who raised the remarkable three-legged blue kitten, Ajani Tut, So JJ and Ajani are related!

You’ve heard me rave about the Gooby Freedom Harness, and with good reason. It’s pretty much the best harness I’ve found yet for cats. It’s fairly escape-proof, it seems comfortable (at least, the cats don’t seem to mind it as much as a lot of harnesses).

As for leashes, the best I’ve found for cats is thePlanet Dog Zip Lead Retractable Leash. Retractable leashes are great for cats, but unlike the Flexi-Leads, the Zip Lead is only 6 feet long when fully extended, and it has a soft loop that slips onto your wrist, so you keep your hand free – a huge disadvantage to the Flexi-Leads.

Unfortunately, for therapy visits, retractable leashes are not allowed, so Jake has a custom leather leash and harness made by our friend Sally at HiTide Creations.

One last note. You may have read about or seen the Cat Walking Jacket and wondered if it was as good as it sounds. It may be, but it doesn’t work on Abys. I got one and tried it on Angel, and she was able to get out of it in under a minute. It also just didn’t seem that comfortable, so I really couldn’t blame her escaping it.

If a cat (especially an Aby) figures out how to get out out of something, it’s pretty much worthless after that. And Angel is the least likely to try to escape from her harness! So while the Walking Jacket may work for some cats…I’ll stick with the Gooby harnesses with my little ticked Houdinis, thanks.

I subscribe to the Catster Blog and get updates by email. Today’s email came with a very timely link to an entry about walking cats on leashes.

Even better, it features Radar, the Aby from the Upper West Side. I actually posted about Radar back in June 2008.

I love this photo of Radar and Court, his human:

Jacoby and I went out on Saturday to Rolling Bridge park. When we got there, there were two terriers running around offleash. They pretty much ignored us, and when they started towards Jake, their owners would call them and they’d run back. Not a problem, but I wasn’t in the mood to deal with them, and I’d actually seen a cute little grassy area on the other side of the cove near the Post Office guard house and the Red Line trainyard on our way to Rolling Bridge. It had more sun and the grass was unmown and full of clover, and it was far too small for dogs, so we could hang out and not be bothered.

Or so I thought.

I set our things in a back corner, close to the fences at the base of a tree. Jake started exploring and eventually went up to a patch of longer grass near the sidewalk, which was adorable because he sort of slithered into it on his belly like a snake, and when he did that the grass was almost tall enough to cover him.

So I laid down on my stomach and took a bunch of photos of him in the grass. We were having an awesome time lying in the grass when suddenly, a lab-collie cross – not on a leash, of course – came running up. No people in sight. He saw Jake and me and started to come up to us.

This was a big dog (he looked a lot like this), and I was flat on my belly in the grass. I wasn’t sure if I should move or not, so I yelled “NO” in a commanding voice. The dog seemed perplexed. For a second, the scene was frozen.

Then his people (a man and a pregnant woman, who I think was carrying the leash) came around the corner and everything started moving at once. The dog moved towards Jake, I started to get up, the people kept walking, the dog went to grab Jake, and I lunged towards Jake and sort of covered him with my body and started shrieking at the dog’s owners. “Could you keep your dog on a leash? This isn’t a dog park – this isn’t even a park! There’s a leash law in Boston! What the hell were you thinking!? Seriously, what the hell?!”

(Hey, I had just seen a big dog make a move towards Jake. I was just envisioning the dog dragging Jake off, Jake hanging limp in the dog’s jaws, rushing to the emergency vet…yeah, I was totally freaking out.)

And the people just sort of fumbled around like they were sleepwalking. The man went to grab his dog, the woman tried to deal with the leash, and they kind of wandered off, all without saying a word to me. No apology, no admission of guilt…nothing! I mean, I can almost see letting your dog off leash in a park, maybe, but on the WAY to the park? Near a road where Post Office trucks go zooming by? Yeah, no.

To give you an idea, here is a Google Earth shot of where we were in relation to Rolling Bridge Park and Dorchester Ave. The X is the bench where a homeless guy was sitting, and the # is where our pile of stuff was:

It’s not even about Jake being a cat. I could have been in the park with a smaller dog, or even a little kid; this dog was running around loose and his people did not have him under control. I know we’re lucky nothing happened, but nothing SHOULD have happened! We’re in a little grass patch, not even a real park! My animal is on a leash and under my control. We were doing everything right, minding our own business, and it almost went horribly wrong.

I actually called Animal Control today and spoke to Mark Giannangelo. He’s going to look into it, so we’ll see what happens. He did sound concerned, and he said he would see about getting some signage.

These are a couple of the photos I took just before the dog charged up.

In my product recommendations yesterday, I forgot to mention the cats’ tag collars I got from HiTideCreations’ Etsy Store.

I also have one of her tab leashes for Jacoby, and it really comes in handy. I like to use it when we’re in the hallway, just hooked onto his collar, as a sort of an extra “handle” to grab if I need to catch him in a hurry. Here’s how it looks attached to his harness:

And here Angel models her tag collar (and her tags and gemstone, also from Etsy sellers):

I get asked about the “tools” I use when Jacoby and I go out. I’ve been taking cats out on leashes since I was 12 or 13, and I’ve learned a lot about carriers, leashes and harnesses.

Right now, with Jake, the leash I use Planet Dog Zip Lead, which I like so much better than the more common Flexi-Leads (which I’ve used since they first showed up in the States, around 1990). The Zip Lead is more like a regular leash, with a soft loop handle that slips onto your wrist. Or ankle. It’s also so much smaller and more packable. The only disadvantage to the Zip Lead is that it’s only 6′ long where the Flexis range from 10′ to 26′and sometimes the extra length comes in handy.

His harness is a Gooby New Freedom harness. This is the best harness I’ve found for cats. Before I found these, I really liked the Coastal Size Right figure-8 harness because of its swivel ring. But when the cat pulls on the leash, the weight goes on their neck, and very clever cats can get out of a figure-8 harness. The Gooby harness goes between the front legs, so if the cat pulls, the weight is distributed over their chest. That seems much more comfortable.

I know a lot of people swear by the WalkingJacket for cats, but I’ve tried it and…well, it didn’t work for me. It’s hard for them to wear (it covers a lot of their body, and it rides high on the neck) and it’s kind of tricky to put on a squirmy cat because of its three buckles. But the biggest problem I had with it was Angel, who had never been on a leash before in her life, managed to get out of it. Twice. After which I gave up; once a cat can get out of a harness, you’ll never keep it on them.

I’ve tried a lot of carriers, too. I love Angel’s PETote Roxy bag. It looks like an old school bowling bag, or a large purse. It’s small and cozy and Angel feels very safe and secure inside which is important for her. I really like the roll-up door that the cat can stick his or her head out. It’s awesome to use on a plane; it fits perfectly under the seat and it’s easy to deal with.

It doesn’t work for Jake, though. He’s too active and he doesn’t like being in a carrier the way Angel does. He can actually push through the roll-up door when it’s closed. He needs something with more room and more windows, and closures he can’t open. That’s why, for him, I really love the Snoozer Roll-Around rolling carrier that can convert into a carseat, backpack and it’s also supposed to be airline-approved. I haven’t used it for anything but a roller so far, but I really like that it has two large pockets on the sides for his leash and jacket, water bottle, etc. The biggest problem I have with carriers is they don’t have enough space for all the stuff you need to bring along.

Here’s Jake in his “wheely”…

I also have an Outward Hound Petaroo Front Carrier that I bought for Gun-Hee. It’s like a baby carrier, and while it’s not practical for all situations, it does have its place. When you don’t want to actually carry the carrier, or if you’re going to be doing a lot of walking (it was perfect when I took Gun-Hee to Art Beat in Somerville). I use that with Jake, too, but he tends to try to jump out and walk more than Gun-Hee did.

The weather was gorgeous this weekend, so I took Jacoby out both Saturday and Sunday. We didn’t go far, just to Rolling Bridge and Binford, but both times we had issues with dog owners. Nothing like the Dachshund lady, but still.

Saturday Dave and Angel came with us, and we had a run in with an idiot who figured that just having a leash was good enough. Jake’s on his leash and we’re investigating the rock circle and this lamebrain with a Scotty and a Fox Terrier comes to the park, lets them off leash and starts playing catch. Okay, no problem…until they see Jake. Then they forget all about the ball and come over to bark at Jake. Now, Jake’s really good with dogs, remarkably so, but he’s not used to barking dogs (and these two were barking like crazy at him), so he puffs up and hisses at them. The guy comes over and leashes them, and I’m thinking “Oh, awesome, he gets it.”

Only no, he doesn’t. He neglects to hold on to the leashes (dude, those loops on the end have a purpose, they aren’t there to be decorative), Bernadette (the Foxy) yanks it out of his hand, Finn (the Scotty), follows suit, and the pair of them just run back to Jake to bark in his face some more. Luckily, they didn’t notice Angel, who was in between two of the rocks, out of sight.

It wasn’t really bad, so much as it was thoughtless: “Oh hai, look at my dogs upsetting and being upset by this cat. Gee, guess I won’t do anything at all and just act like nothing at all is wrong with this scenario. Yeah, that’s totes the best way to act here. Finally he got his dogs more or less under control and went to a different area of the park and that was that.

Today it was just me and Jake, and we went to Binford Park. Which for the most part, was also fine. But when we got there, there was a couple with a bully puppy. Very cute, smaller than Jake but offleash so I went over to the far corner of the park, where there’s a big, red-and-white painted buoy.

Again, despite my being vigilant and polite (but choosing a far corner of the park, the puppy comes over to us and proceeds to be really, really friendy. Too friendly, but it’s a cultural difference (cats and dogs greet each other differently), and it takes a lot of the puppy sticking his nose in Jake’s butt before Jake finally has enough, turns around, wraps his tail around him body and hisses at the pup. Which the puppy ignored utterly. Finally the female half of the couple gets the dog, and carries it back to where her husband or boyfriend was and they put on the leash. We are just wandering about, and they decide to leave. As they walk past me, the man passive-agressives, “Wow. That’s really…interesting, bringing a cat to a dog park.”

Yeah, it would be, if I’d brought Jake to a dog park, wouldn’t it? Good thing this is just a general-use city park then isn’t it? Because as only I seem to be aware of, Binford is not a dog park. It’s just a park. And I’m sorry, but just because it’s a public space with grass, that doesn’t mean it’s there exclusively for you to let your dog run off leash.

But I didn’t say all that. What I did say was, “Oh, we come here a lot. Jake really likes it here.” And just dropped the whole issue. But it left a bad taste in my mouth, for a couple of reasons: Binford is not a dog park (not fenced, regularly landscaped with bulb plants (which dogs love to dig up). But his tone was one of a man who feels someone isn’t playing by the rules.

I don’t remember having any problems like this before, when I went to this same park with Gun-Hee. I think I’ll email someone tomorrow about this at the Harborwalk website.