Saturday, March 31, 2007

Trolling By Cat

Okay, it's not the world's best picture, but Patches had just climbed up into the overhead cupboard by clawing her way up my body and then on up into the cupboard. By then I was laughing so hard I couldn't keep the camera still. What on earth did we do for entertainment before we had a cat?

It's been quiet here lately. This area is not big on museums, natural wonders or even geocaches. We've done the Blythe Intaglios and have found the geocaches that are accessible by our truck (many more need 4X4s or ATVs due to the sandy washes that you need to follow to find the caches). Quartzsite's flea market/rv show/gem show extravaganza has closed down for the season and the 100,000 rigs in the desert have winnowed themselves down to a mere 100 or so.

All of which means Patches can enjoy walking around a campground that's only 2/3 full. The two of us were wandering around at dusk the other evening and chanced upon a fox which surprised all of us. I wouldn't have thought the desert was a climate suitable for a fox, but the river might provide sustenance as well as shade trees. I'm still hoping to see another river otter like we did two years ago, but that may have been a fluke occurrence.

It's interesting to walk the campground with Patches on her leash. Most people are surprised to see a cat walking on a leash, as are many of their dogs. It's always easy to separate the cat from the dog people when you walk, but there are a surprising number of folks who have both dogs and cats and so their dogs usually want to make friends with Patches and so far she's not having any of that. She is starting to get closer to the dogs for a sniff or two, but it's done in full archy-back, poufy-tail mode and occasionally she'll toss in a low growl to add to the intimidation factor. I'm working on getting Patches acclimated to dogs so she'll be able to enjoy walking outside. It's either that or she'll be stuck inside the fifth wheel and for her, that's not an option.

Now if you'll excuse us, we have some hummingbirds to watch.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow wonderful that Patches gets to enjoy the outdoors. The safety of a leash sounds like a very good idea, especially with foxes about.

On Sadie, Coco and my walking route, we pass a house where two cats are allowed out in the front yard tethered with kitty leashes. The big black cat, on sighting us coming towards him.. always makes a big production. With back arched and tail puffed he charges (or kind of bounces) towards us. Of course both of my dogs, already ruled by a cat, take absolutely no notice. I, on the other hand, am usually holding my sides in laughter.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...