HIKING WITH A CAT COMPANION

Summary

Bringing home a kitty is a big deal (yeah, team cats!). Settling kitty into her new routine and home is important. Now it is time to prepare her (and us) for the lifestyle we live. Welcome kitty to the world of adventure! If all goes well we hope to take her hiking and camping!

Cats…

Having no idea on how one goes about exposing their cat to an adventure lifestyle, this process will surely be trial and error based. My childhood cats were all outdoor kitties (yes, they had safe places to escape to, were fed and lived happy lives) and my previous bonded pair were indoor only. They were more than happy to live out their long years as pampered and adored cats who occasionally went outside on a harness. This new kitty, Lucille, will also be an indoor kitty. But, we like to be on the go. Therefore, she gets to be an adventure kitty. Luckily she has a bold personality with a lot of sass. Hopefully this all goes well.

First Few Days

Within a few days of adopting Lucille I took her outside. I put a little harness and leash on her. Wearing my oldest jacket and an old sweater that can’t be destroyed by kitty claws, we placed Lucille inside my jacket. And went for a short walk.

On day one, she spent most of the walk hiding in my jacket and found she could squeeze herself halfway down my sleeve. I looked ridiculous with a one sided she-hulk arm. The next time outside she wanted out of my jacket. I let her down to sniff a bit on the trail prior to returning her to my jacket. She proceeded to become an angsty, wiggly nightmare to hold onto and I decided not to return to walking until we had a backpack for her.

Backpacks

There are a million backpack options for pet owners. Most claim to be the best and figuring out what to get is certainly a little daunting. I would imagine every cat is different in what they will tolerate and it depends on what their human counterpart plans to do as well.

There were a few qualities I desired in what I’m going to call our “starter” pack. Listed are pro’s to the pack we purchased.

Pack is big enough for Lucille to sit up in
Has an internal restraint/tie in (so she can’t accidentally escape, though she broke this on day two)
Zippers can be locked to prevent escape
The top opens (so one day she can hang out the top)
The top has an optional cover that snaps in place with magnets (can’t get wet!)
Ventilation (it’s hot here in the summer)
Water resistant
Padded shoulder straps (purely for my comfort)
Bonus: it doubles as a TSA approved cat carrier for flights
Inexpensive (don’t want to spend a lot until I figure out if she will tolerate adventures)

I suspect no pack is perfect. If we really do take her on longer hikes with us there are a few other thing’s I’d prefer in a pack. Not sure if this magical pack exists.

Better shoulder straps
Padded waist strap (think backpacking pack quality)
Padding/support for the back so the pack base doesn’t dig into my back
Place for my camelback to go and access to the water
Separate section(s) to put my lunch/necessities/jacket in
A pack that’s not black so Lucille doesn’t get heat stroke

Overall I’m happy with the pack we ordered. It works well enough for jaunts around the neighborhood and small walks/hikes that are not technical. We bought the pack off Amazon and it’s no better or worse than we thought it would be.

Find her backpack here on Amazon

Lucille’s Jaunts

Lucille hates her backpack. Until she is let out to walk. After a bit of walking she is more than happy to hitch a ride. My hope is to have her pack be her “safe place” when hiking. Where she can relax and watch the world go by or take a nap. She is a cat after all. And they notoriously like to sleep.

So far she has gone on quite a few walks. Our regular loop is 3.6 miles and includes a walk along the river and back up through the neighborhoods. The longest walk she has endured was 5.5 miles. Pretty sure she and my 5 year old nephew thought that walk was way too long. They both did great and each got a snack afterwards, everything is better with a snack apparently.

A few days before Christmas, we took Lucille out for her first “hike”. As we have had no snow, the trails were either frozen in the shade or mildly muddy in the sun. Once we were out far enough, and there were no longer other people or dogs, we let Lucille out (leashed). She did significantly better than either of us expected. Sure she was freaked out but she did a pretty good job of walking. If Doug walked ahead she would hustle to keep up. Occasionally she’d let out a mewl and need a pat on the head for reassurance or to be picked up and carried for a few steps. But she was also wanting to go on a few sniffing detours thru the grass and played with pieces of said grass dangled for her by Doug. Lucille discovered puddles. Tromped right into one. Followed by an abrupt halt and route change, as in around instead of thru said puddle. I thought it was funny.

Any time we saw someone else we’d pick her up and return her to her backpack until they had passed. She never protested.

Cozy Cat Coat

Finding Lucille a jacket has proven difficult. Pretty sure I ordered at least half a dozen jackets off of Amazon. All but one were returned due to poor fit. Most jackets are for dogs and finding one that would cover most of her back and suited to her front legs was a process. As she is still growing I prefer not to spend a fortune as she will likely grow out of anything purchased now. Maybe I’m ridiculous and a half bubble off center but, I want Lucille not to freeze while outside. It does get cold here. And windy. Cold and windy = not fun. I hate being cold, so why would I want kitty to be cold? Or wet? Thus her blue jacket (meant for a mini dachshund, length is perfect!), which she is not a fan of. But does tolerate well once it’s on.

Find Lucille’s jacket here on Amazon. She wears the 8L.

Oddly enough, I spontaneously bought her an ugly Christmas sweater the day we brought her home. It is turtleneck style and fits her well. It calms her craziness down weirdly enough. On days it’s not raining and windy (why is it still raining in December? Where is the snow?) I put the sweater on her instead. She seems to prefer it over the jacket. Generally sweaters are outside only for kitty but as it was Christmas she got to wear it around a few hours inside. Someday I’ll figure out where people get all those adorable cat jackets and knit sweaters from. In the meantime these will suffice.

Find this sweater here at PetSmart. Lucille wears a size small.

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