My climbing partner, she eats chicken liver.
May 13, 2014 5:57 PM Subscribe
I am glad that so far this appears to have a happier ending than when Ezra Koenig took his cat Andrew Giggles to the beach.
posted by elizardbits at 6:09 PM on May 13, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by elizardbits at 6:09 PM on May 13, 2014 [2 favorites]
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posted by zamboni at 6:15 PM on May 13, 2014 [7 favorites]
Cat lost at Devil's Tower - help July 13, 2012
posted by zamboni at 6:15 PM on May 13, 2014 [7 favorites]
That site dropped a black veil over the content and wouldn't allow me to view it--and yes, I do have Facebook blocked.
posted by jamjam at 6:31 PM on May 13, 2014
posted by jamjam at 6:31 PM on May 13, 2014
Aw thanks, zamboni, like I didn't cry enough at that the FIRST time around...
posted by theweasel at 7:04 PM on May 13, 2014
posted by theweasel at 7:04 PM on May 13, 2014
I am a climber and a cat person so OMG OMG OMG OMG
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:13 PM on May 13, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:13 PM on May 13, 2014 [3 favorites]
As far as climbing buddies go, I'm not so sure. On the one hand, I seriously doubt Millie could carry me out if I fractured my femur. On the other hand, if I were lost and starving in the wilderness, I would never consider eating my climbing buddy Tim.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:16 PM on May 13, 2014
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:16 PM on May 13, 2014
It's cute until your cat decides that you are a mountain that needs climbing with crampons on.
posted by srboisvert at 7:46 PM on May 13, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by srboisvert at 7:46 PM on May 13, 2014 [3 favorites]
It's cute until your cat decides that you are a mountain that needs climbing with crampons on.
Yeah, so that's pretty much every minute of every day in my house.
posted by mudpuppie at 7:59 PM on May 13, 2014 [8 favorites]
Yeah, so that's pretty much every minute of every day in my house.
posted by mudpuppie at 7:59 PM on May 13, 2014 [8 favorites]
my kitty is sufficiently fortunate to have a human who loves her enough to provide a safe, comfortable, familiar space for her 24/7. she isn't ever going to get the opportunity to visit the back country, get spooked by a bear/coyote/whatever and bolt into the brush, never to be seen again. it's great that the writer found the one cat in 1000 with a temperament like a dog, but it's foolish to pretend that cats and dogs are equivalent animals.
posted by bruce at 8:17 PM on May 13, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by bruce at 8:17 PM on May 13, 2014 [3 favorites]
I usually think of the tradeoffs between cats and dogs as such:
- Cats don't create a situation in which they cannot pee without you getting up and taking them outside.
- Dogs can go outside and ramble through stuff with you.
Millie has smashed the paradigm! She's seems more of a familiar than a pet. I wonder if she's good at staying with the guy only at climbing sites, or even in boring flat places.
posted by ignignokt at 8:18 PM on May 13, 2014 [1 favorite]
- Cats don't create a situation in which they cannot pee without you getting up and taking them outside.
- Dogs can go outside and ramble through stuff with you.
Millie has smashed the paradigm! She's seems more of a familiar than a pet. I wonder if she's good at staying with the guy only at climbing sites, or even in boring flat places.
posted by ignignokt at 8:18 PM on May 13, 2014 [1 favorite]
This made Mr Padraigin nostalgic for the days when he had a ramblin' cat. Our current cats would not have this. Luckily he has climbing kids.
posted by padraigin at 8:25 PM on May 13, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by padraigin at 8:25 PM on May 13, 2014 [1 favorite]
it's great that the writer found the one cat in 1000 with a temperament like a dog, but it's foolish to pretend that cats and dogs are equivalent animals.
Dogs love hiking but most of them can't climb. It does seem like he won the cat lottery with this one.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:41 PM on May 13, 2014 [1 favorite]
Dogs love hiking but most of them can't climb. It does seem like he won the cat lottery with this one.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:41 PM on May 13, 2014 [1 favorite]
When I was a kid, my dad and I would take one of his legion of dogs on canoe trips with us. You haven't lived until a 75+ pound Lab decides he'd really like to look out the other side of the canoe now while you're mid-rapid.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 8:45 PM on May 13, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 8:45 PM on May 13, 2014 [5 favorites]
This is fantastic!
My Millie is more into spelunking.
posted by maryr at 10:04 PM on May 13, 2014 [6 favorites]
My Millie is more into spelunking.
posted by maryr at 10:04 PM on May 13, 2014 [6 favorites]
My cat was more into the sitting around screaming at me to feed him constantly kind of sports.
posted by Justinian at 10:14 PM on May 13, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 10:14 PM on May 13, 2014 [2 favorites]
it's great that the writer found the one cat in 1000 with a temperament like a dog, but it's foolish to pretend that cats and dogs are equivalent animals.
I don't know about that. If you get them young enough, they will adapt.
Cats like to play and explore outside. The ones that don't mind being inside all the time probably didn't get out much as kittens.
posted by Soupisgoodfood at 10:16 PM on May 13, 2014 [1 favorite]
I don't know about that. If you get them young enough, they will adapt.
Cats like to play and explore outside. The ones that don't mind being inside all the time probably didn't get out much as kittens.
posted by Soupisgoodfood at 10:16 PM on May 13, 2014 [1 favorite]
I love eating chicken liver.
Apparently this makes me a rock climbing cat.
Mrrow?
posted by divabat at 10:32 PM on May 13, 2014
Apparently this makes me a rock climbing cat.
Mrrow?
posted by divabat at 10:32 PM on May 13, 2014
I don't know about that. If you get them young enough, they will adapt.
Cats like to play and explore outside.
Yeah, mine is very cautious exploring new outside places, but I think that's because they are usually territory that has been marked by other cats. I imagine in the backcountry there'd be less of that, so she might be more fearless.
My husband's childhood cat used to accompany him when he went hiking in the New Zealand bush (which is probably terrible in terms of effects on native wildlife, but pretty damn adorable.)
posted by lollusc at 11:15 PM on May 13, 2014 [1 favorite]
Cats like to play and explore outside.
Yeah, mine is very cautious exploring new outside places, but I think that's because they are usually territory that has been marked by other cats. I imagine in the backcountry there'd be less of that, so she might be more fearless.
My husband's childhood cat used to accompany him when he went hiking in the New Zealand bush (which is probably terrible in terms of effects on native wildlife, but pretty damn adorable.)
posted by lollusc at 11:15 PM on May 13, 2014 [1 favorite]
My cat was more into the sitting around screaming at me to feed him constantly kind of sports.
Performance art.
posted by NoraReed at 11:58 PM on May 13, 2014
Performance art.
posted by NoraReed at 11:58 PM on May 13, 2014
My husband's childhood cat used to accompany him when he went hiking in the New Zealand bush (which is probably terrible in terms of effects on native wildlife, but pretty damn adorable.)
We have a lot of native bush behind our house in the Hutt Valley, NZ. Often, when I go outside she'll run around and follow me like a Terrier. Except that dogs don't climb trees or attack tussocks of grass.
Your husband's cat was probably fine, as I think it's cats that are left out at night, and strays, that cause most of the problems.
posted by Soupisgoodfood at 12:50 AM on May 14, 2014
We have a lot of native bush behind our house in the Hutt Valley, NZ. Often, when I go outside she'll run around and follow me like a Terrier. Except that dogs don't climb trees or attack tussocks of grass.
Your husband's cat was probably fine, as I think it's cats that are left out at night, and strays, that cause most of the problems.
posted by Soupisgoodfood at 12:50 AM on May 14, 2014
Nice article.
My cat would have done this if he'd been raised to it like this cat was.
posted by zennie at 3:58 AM on May 14, 2014
My cat would have done this if he'd been raised to it like this cat was.
posted by zennie at 3:58 AM on May 14, 2014
Cats named Millie are the best. Mine was a mighty, vicious, pointy, hunter sweetie with insatiable appetites for cuddles and murder. (And using her brother as furniture.) She had these powerful jackrabbit legs that could shoot her straight up five feet in the air to catch a moth in the streetlight, and a purr that could turn cream into butter. She'd get so worked up from either love or wrath that she'd have to go away and just calm herself down for a while.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:49 AM on May 14, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:49 AM on May 14, 2014 [4 favorites]
But yeah, a wise old man once told me that the best way to train a cat to do something is to find something the cat already likes to do and encourage it. Seems like the guy in the article just clicked with the right cat, as he says.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:51 AM on May 14, 2014
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:51 AM on May 14, 2014
Alfie and I have a somewhat more relaxed approach to trekking...
Step 1) "Alfie! Outside!". Alfie runs to the door and sits expectant.
Step 2) Alfie gets fitted out with his harness and leash.
Step 3) I gather myself a cup of tea or glass of wine.
Step 4) We embark into the great outdoors! Alfie has to roll in the sand before we really get started though.
Step 5) And then we stroll down the street in a process that takes about half an hour. Alfie looks over fences, eats grass, watches birds, smells the footpath and is ADORED by the neighbourhood kids (who fight over who gets to hold Alfie's leash the longest). I stroll slowly in his wake, sipping vino and throwing sticks for him to chase (though he never brings them back to me).
It makes for a civilized existence.
posted by Alice Russel-Wallace at 5:59 AM on May 14, 2014 [10 favorites]
Step 1) "Alfie! Outside!". Alfie runs to the door and sits expectant.
Step 2) Alfie gets fitted out with his harness and leash.
Step 3) I gather myself a cup of tea or glass of wine.
Step 4) We embark into the great outdoors! Alfie has to roll in the sand before we really get started though.
Step 5) And then we stroll down the street in a process that takes about half an hour. Alfie looks over fences, eats grass, watches birds, smells the footpath and is ADORED by the neighbourhood kids (who fight over who gets to hold Alfie's leash the longest). I stroll slowly in his wake, sipping vino and throwing sticks for him to chase (though he never brings them back to me).
It makes for a civilized existence.
posted by Alice Russel-Wallace at 5:59 AM on May 14, 2014 [10 favorites]
I'm too worried about something happening to my cat Anoush to take her hiking with me. She does love to explore though. Once when she was a kitten, she got out of the apartment and ran down to the basement, only to get spooked and hide behind the old disused boiler. There was no way I could get her out. Instead I opted to go back up leaving the doors open and trust that she would head back up on her own. Now I'm up on the top floor and she regularly wanders out to the hall, and I share a deck with a neighbor that she can use (Alternating days, Emerson the neighbor cat also uses it and she doesn't like him). Of course there are no Coyotes or foxes on the deck. Only the occasional hawk.
posted by evilDoug at 6:49 AM on May 14, 2014
posted by evilDoug at 6:49 AM on May 14, 2014
the traveling kitty might be worth a mention as well - also apparently after he lost Pikachu in the Grand Tetons, he gets a notice six months later that his kitty has been found??
posted by cristinacristinacristina at 6:56 AM on May 14, 2014
posted by cristinacristinacristina at 6:56 AM on May 14, 2014
Wait, Underpants Monster, is Millie the tabby or the spotted?
posted by maryr at 7:50 AM on May 14, 2014
posted by maryr at 7:50 AM on May 14, 2014
Wait, Underpants Monster, is Millie the tabby or the spotted?
She's the spotted one doing the Superman impression.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:02 AM on May 14, 2014
She's the spotted one doing the Superman impression.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:02 AM on May 14, 2014
OK, I thought she looked strikingly like my Millie for a moment! Admittedly, my Millie, gorgeous as she is, is kind of default model cat.
posted by maryr at 8:16 AM on May 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by maryr at 8:16 AM on May 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
While reading this article I couldn't stop thinking about the story from 4chan about the guy who was allegedly strength training his cat.
posted by Spiced Out Calvin Coolidge at 9:08 AM on May 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Spiced Out Calvin Coolidge at 9:08 AM on May 14, 2014 [1 favorite]
I'm more jealous of Millie('s owner) than I can speak of. My own cat comes for walks around our yard on a leash, occasionally, but my neighbor's bird feeders are better off with kitty indoors.
posted by Dashy at 9:15 AM on May 14, 2014
posted by Dashy at 9:15 AM on May 14, 2014
I used to walk with my cat, Toots. But she couldn't keep a human's pace. Cats don't trek, they slink, stop-and-stretch, constantly watching what's around. Mad dash, then stop and preen. Come to think of it, I kind of do that when I climb.
posted by Goofyy at 9:22 AM on May 14, 2014
posted by Goofyy at 9:22 AM on May 14, 2014
> a wise old man once told me that the best way to train a cat to do something is to find something the cat already likes to do and encourage it.
QFT. Pixel, our ramblin' kitty came to us a year ago at the age of 6 from a shelter. He'd never even been in a harness to the best of my knowledge, but within a week he was strolling down the street with us as if he'd been born to it.
he's a former indoor/outdoor cat who enjoys exploring and isn't afraid of strangers. He has even shown willing to attack / chase neighborhood dogs if I let him - it's hilarious to have the conversation with a neighbor out walking his 80 pound Lab when I pick Pixel up "oh no, he's not afraid OF your dog, *I* am afraid FOR your dog!"
I've taught him various commands like "come", "stay", "up", "down", and "leave it" (this one is important mainly because he loves rooting around trash bins and under bushes), and now he enjoys his nightly jaunt around the neighborhood with my husband and I as much as any dog. He'll walk the six blocks and back to/from the local park, loves exploring along the creek there, and he goes on visits to our friend's house half a mile away and is a model houseguest when he's there. He walks with us on lead exactly like a dog does, with the exception that he'll sprint up the odd tree trunk if I give him the opportunity, which I do since he just jumps right back down again.
posted by lonefrontranger at 9:27 AM on May 14, 2014 [2 favorites]
QFT. Pixel, our ramblin' kitty came to us a year ago at the age of 6 from a shelter. He'd never even been in a harness to the best of my knowledge, but within a week he was strolling down the street with us as if he'd been born to it.
he's a former indoor/outdoor cat who enjoys exploring and isn't afraid of strangers. He has even shown willing to attack / chase neighborhood dogs if I let him - it's hilarious to have the conversation with a neighbor out walking his 80 pound Lab when I pick Pixel up "oh no, he's not afraid OF your dog, *I* am afraid FOR your dog!"
I've taught him various commands like "come", "stay", "up", "down", and "leave it" (this one is important mainly because he loves rooting around trash bins and under bushes), and now he enjoys his nightly jaunt around the neighborhood with my husband and I as much as any dog. He'll walk the six blocks and back to/from the local park, loves exploring along the creek there, and he goes on visits to our friend's house half a mile away and is a model houseguest when he's there. He walks with us on lead exactly like a dog does, with the exception that he'll sprint up the odd tree trunk if I give him the opportunity, which I do since he just jumps right back down again.
posted by lonefrontranger at 9:27 AM on May 14, 2014 [2 favorites]
What a beauty Pixel is - his "third eye" is entrancing!
Every cat I've tried the harness on has adopted the World's Heaviest Harness position.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:36 AM on May 14, 2014
Every cat I've tried the harness on has adopted the World's Heaviest Harness position.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:36 AM on May 14, 2014
I tried convincing my cats to try collars and harnesses and they were having none of it. Skulking and hiding deep under the very middle of the bed was the least of it.
posted by rmd1023 at 9:43 AM on May 14, 2014
posted by rmd1023 at 9:43 AM on May 14, 2014
thank you T.U.M! he's a photogenic little beastie for sure.
- you'll note that the cat owner in the OP made mention of the fact that Millie has grown more accustomed to the routines and other people's dogs, and doesn't jump onto other peoples' backs as much in camp anymore either -- I also like that he shows Millie in her harness in several shots, as well as shoulder riding - it looks as though he secures her on a piece of strong paracord for the more challenging stuff, too.
every single one of my cats (and I've harness trained quite a few) has done the World's Heaviest Harness routine the first time I put it on. Well okay, my big Ragdoll took off like a superfurry mini bucking bronco, but he's different (oh, so different, that cat; he positively redefines "cats-are-weird")... I don't use the figure 8 strap type harnesses because they suck and are the worst and my cats find them unbearable. I strictly use the wide velcro "holster" jacket-type that doesn't pinch or choke them. And I just pop the jacket on and leave them in it until they settle down, which varies by cat. Under the bed sulking? Rock on, kitty; you'll eventually get hungry and come out.
heartless, I know. Fortunately they've all forgiven me and they adapt quickly. Once they're blase about the harness as a routine annoyance, I introduce the lead. As with all things cat, it's an incremental process. Fortunately, cats are both very smart and very good with routine, and pretty much the instant they associate Harness to Outside (assuming they enjoy investigating the outdoors) the process goes along much more smoothly and within a few tries they might even do like ours and run to the door when you get the harness out.
posted by lonefrontranger at 2:56 PM on May 14, 2014
- you'll note that the cat owner in the OP made mention of the fact that Millie has grown more accustomed to the routines and other people's dogs, and doesn't jump onto other peoples' backs as much in camp anymore either -- I also like that he shows Millie in her harness in several shots, as well as shoulder riding - it looks as though he secures her on a piece of strong paracord for the more challenging stuff, too.
every single one of my cats (and I've harness trained quite a few) has done the World's Heaviest Harness routine the first time I put it on. Well okay, my big Ragdoll took off like a superfurry mini bucking bronco, but he's different (oh, so different, that cat; he positively redefines "cats-are-weird")... I don't use the figure 8 strap type harnesses because they suck and are the worst and my cats find them unbearable. I strictly use the wide velcro "holster" jacket-type that doesn't pinch or choke them. And I just pop the jacket on and leave them in it until they settle down, which varies by cat. Under the bed sulking? Rock on, kitty; you'll eventually get hungry and come out.
heartless, I know. Fortunately they've all forgiven me and they adapt quickly. Once they're blase about the harness as a routine annoyance, I introduce the lead. As with all things cat, it's an incremental process. Fortunately, cats are both very smart and very good with routine, and pretty much the instant they associate Harness to Outside (assuming they enjoy investigating the outdoors) the process goes along much more smoothly and within a few tries they might even do like ours and run to the door when you get the harness out.
posted by lonefrontranger at 2:56 PM on May 14, 2014
Every cat I've tried the harness on has adopted the World's Heaviest Harness position.
We had a Jack Russell Terrier that suffered the same affliction. Her coat* was especially heavy, it seemed. It got lighter once the door was opened. Must be one of those quantum mechanical things.
* A plain dog coat that just covered her back, not a silly coat that makes your dog look like it's wearing human cloths.
posted by Soupisgoodfood at 3:43 PM on May 14, 2014
We had a Jack Russell Terrier that suffered the same affliction. Her coat* was especially heavy, it seemed. It got lighter once the door was opened. Must be one of those quantum mechanical things.
* A plain dog coat that just covered her back, not a silly coat that makes your dog look like it's wearing human cloths.
posted by Soupisgoodfood at 3:43 PM on May 14, 2014
OMG, I so want that cat strength training thing to be true.
posted by ignignokt at 4:50 PM on May 14, 2014
posted by ignignokt at 4:50 PM on May 14, 2014
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