Leon continues to enjoy his hiking adventure in the mountains of Poland.(I’m now a day behind; these pictures are from yesterday, and today’s photos will be up tomorrow. Then Leon and his staff go home.)
I’m told that Leon continues his friendship with the lovely innkeeper’s cat, Balbina, although she ate all the food in Leon’s bowl! Fortunately, there was plenty of extra food so Leon didn’t go hungry. Balbina also tried to fit into Leon’s basket, but, being a cat of some pulchritude, she was too big for it, so Leon retained his bed. Balbina apparently has a son as well, who is shy (see below).
Elzbieta sent five pictures of Leon’s doings today, and one monologue:
Leon: We were looking for the Spring and I picked a hole.
Balbina (right) and her son:
As lagniappe, here’s a Polish cat cartoon posted on Elzbieta’s Facebook page, which I asked Malgorzata to translate into English:
In the left panel the man says: “There is no meaning to life”
On the right panel the cat says: “but there is a little cat”.
When one has a cat, meaning is of no interest nor consequence. All is sufficient unto itself.
b&
Yes, with a cat there can be no depression.
I do wonder about cats people take out like this. Cat’s generally aren’t well suited for going on adventures the way dogs are. Reading the book “A Street Cat Named Bob” helped re-enforce that for me.
“A Cat Named Bob” is about how adopting and caring for a cat help British busker James Bowen with his drug addiction. Taking the calm,, handsome and sociable Bob busking with him garnered brown much attention. However, there were a few times Brown records where Bob was frightened and ran off in the middle of an urban environment, in spite of being on a harness. There was a great deal of luck involved in Brown finding Bob alive again on those occasions.
Cat’s run, hide and/or seek elevation to get away from predators (I’ve had a frightened cat at the vet’s office cat scramble, claws and all haste, to the highest place in the room – the top of my uncovered head :-0 ).
I can’t really tell how much of these adventures is fun for the cat and how much is just for the owners. I hope the cats in these kinds of photo essays are a kind of cat more at ease in large, unknown territories than cats I’ve known.
Acclimation does wonders.
Baihu was a feral kitten born to a feral mother, and, even now, he’s known to hide under the bed covers when strange invaders come over to install an irrigation system or whatever.
Out on the trail, he spends a fair amount of time trotting along, sniffing everything in sight, and generally showing a good deal of interest in his surroundings. His body language typically is normal, sometimes rather relaxed, sometimes rather alert…same as he is at home. He rides on my shoulders more than he walks; when there, he’s either bonelessly relaxed watching the scenery go by or he’s standing up paying close attention to something (like a bird) that’s caught his eye.
When another person approaches, and especially somebody who comes up fast on a mountain bike, he shows flight reflexes. He might hunker down to turn invisible or, if there’s a bush right there, he might head for that.
But then I scoop him up onto my shoulders and he chills. He’s never shown the slightest desire to leave my shoulders once there — at least, not until the other people are far enough away to no longer be of concern for him.
So, whatever paranoia he might have on the trail he brings with him from home. The only difference is that he’s out in the middle of one of the most beautiful city parks on the entire planet, in relatively undisturbed Sonoran Desert mountainous habitat — and safely so in such a way that he’s not at risk from coyotes nor raptors nor rattlers.
I telecommute, so I’m almost always home. And he unquestionably scolds me when I get back after leaving him alone at home; he gets lonely and doesn’t like being left alone. So, even if he gets nervous at times on the trail, I figure that’s a lot better for him than pining away for me at home wondering when and if I’ll ever come back and what he did to deserve being abandoned.
Incidentally, he got up on my shoulders somewhere in the middle of me typing this note. After a bit, the water started boiling, so I went and finished cooking dinner, and he stayed on my shoulders for most of that, including all of the cooking of the noodles for the kasha varnishkes and taking the asparagus out of the oven. Part of that is because he wants a second helping of dessert (which he won’t get), but part of it’s also that I was away all afternoon and evening yesterday at a concert.
So…yes, obviously, there are risks associated with taking him out on the trail, but I’ve been very careful to minimize them basically to nonexistence…and I think the rewards are well worth it for both of us. Especially considering that not taking him doesn’t make him any happier.
Cheers,
b&
Ooh, I want a shoulder cat. But I think I’d need more of a dowager’s hump for a full sized cat to comfortably perch on.
Oh, don’t worry. Cats bend to any shape, and they have these handy self-fastening hooks on the ends.
Though Baihu does sometimes overflow onto the Camelbak, of course, when we’re on the trail….
b&
A friend just sent me this. Makes sure to watch the last 2 seconds.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5sy1MDHZ27M&sns=em
What footwear are you wearing in the first few jpegs?
Lovely pictures of Leon 🙂