KAYA TO THE RESCUE!

I was out on a walk around the neighborhood the other day with Kaya, Norman and Shaka. This is something we rarely do because it really is not a whole lot of exercise for my pups, but it's better than nothing when I'm crunched for time. It's pretty easy to walk all 3 because Norman and Shaka are super easy leash walkers. And I never walk Kaya on leash because she is actually much easier to walk off leash. On leash she pulls like crazy or has to be constantly reminded not to. Off leash she stays right by my side, never goes ahead of me, she sits whenever I stop and I know she will listen no matter what...she has no interest in things like squirrels, other cats, skunks(yes-we've seen a couple skunks!) or other dogs. Sometimes people actually call her over to say hello to them and she stays right next to me. Whereas on the leash, she'd be pulling like crazy to get over there...weird!

One good thing about walking around the neighborhood is that Marty loves to follow us and explore all the sites and smells where he wouldn't normally roam. Plus, he gets to pretend to be one of the dogs, which he truly believes he is. We get a lot of funny looks and remarks from people. Often, people warn me that there is a cat behind us, thinking he is not mine and that the dogs will react when he gets closer. Once I tell them he's with us, they get a huge kick out of it.

Marty usually hangs behind us, sniffing things and climbing trees. Then he races to catch up and flops on the ground, often panting. I then give him a minute to catch his breath and we carry on. So at one point on this walk, I noticed that he was no longer behind us and I turned around to head back about a block to the last spot I remembered seeing him. He normally meows when he loses sight of us and I know to turn back or call him to us.

I walked along calling his name and then I saw him under a car on the other side of the street. I thought, what the hell is he doing under a car? Considering he is a very brave and curious cat, I've never seen him hide before. We crossed the street and I called his name again. He took comfort in the sight of his dogs (I know it wasn't me) and came towards us. Then I saw it. A big brown menacing cat that was hot on his trail. Marty ran behind a big bush and the cat crouched into a pouncing position. I wasn't going to just sit by and let him go after Marty, but I by the time I could walk closer, he was sure to be on top of my cat. The dogs stood next to me, probably wondering why we just turned around to look at an ugly brown cat.

So I gave Kaya the cue to go over to the cat. Now, she really didn't give a shit, but since I told her to "go say hi" she marched on over to check him out. I knew she would be fine since not only is she known as the cat whisperer at home, but she's also experienced plenty of random neighborhood cats hiss in her face and run away, while she looks at them like they're crazy. So as Kaya approached, the cat quickly backed down from his attack position and darted under the car where he had Marty pinned earlier. I called Kaya back to me and we were on our way. Marty happily ditched his position behind the bush and marched proudly behind us once again. Now I know Kaya wasn't really defending her cat, but it turned out to be a good story anyways.

All's well that ends well.

Related Posts:
Kaya's Kitties
Kaya: The Cat Whisperer & Her Sidekick Norman