Walking the dogs... and the cat??

When we moved to Cali 4 years ago we were so excited that we could finally get a pet. Since we lived in a rental home, and we weren't actually allowed to have a pet, we settled on a cat that would live inside. We found Ezra Nehemiah at a local pet shelter. We instantly fell in love with him.

As we got to know Ezra, we discovered that he was living up to his tiger stripes. Ezra loved to go outside and explore. He was an adventurous, wild cat- who was very difficult to keep contained to our house. I secretly had a dream that I could train this cat to go on walks with us... like on a leash. Yes, they do make a cat leash- and we own one. We tried to put Ezra on a leash and take him for a walk. Well, the first time that we tried to walk him on a harness, we got to the middle of our driveway, and he freaked out and did some Houdini moves (I'm serious!) and got out of the cat harness we fastened him into. It was amazing. I think he had to dislocate his shoulder to get out of that thing! It didn't matter how many times we tried, how much we tightened the harness, Ezra would always get out. My dreams of having a pet to walk were diminished.

Until we got our dogs... We love to walk our dogs- in fact we got them in part to walk them and make friends with our neighbors. People are more likely to talk to you when you have a dog... And it worked! Only... the friends we made we all under the age of 10 years old... Anyway, we were happy to walk the dogs. Then, one night as we were walking the dogs around the neighborhood, we noticed that Ezra was following us! In fact, he followed us for the entire walk. He stayed right by us- driving the dogs crazy the whole way. Now, every time we walk the dogs, Ezra comes along. I got my wish after all!

We took the dogs for a walk tonight and Ezra joined us. It was so hot that he was even panting! Have you EVER seen a cat pant? It looks pretty funny! Anyway, that experience reminded me of this story, and I thought I'd share.