NB This is the last post at https://longoio.wordpress.com – this blog now continues at http://longoio2.wordpress.com
It is common knowledge that cats can be trained to go for walks on a leash and harness and we have spotted several felines, especially in continental countries where more people live in flats, dragged around town at the end of a lead.
We never attempted this training on any our poor cats in London and never here in Longoio.
However, two of our cats, big black and white Napoleone and little tortoiseshell Carlotta, both rescue cats, respond happily to us when we tell them “let’s go for walkies” – without a leash or harness of course!
Fortunately, the walks are on the footpaths which start just outside our front gate and are without any major road crossing and (hopefully) with no fierce dogs lurking around.
Yesterday, between one storm and another, our adventurous felines followed us on quite a considerable tour, part of which we’d covered with a friend who’s done a recent post on her visit to Longoio and Mobbiano.
Of course, there’s no way one can say “heel” or “sit down” to a cat but ours do keep up with us in a remarkable way and thoroughly enjoy sniffing their path through often unfamiliar territory. Those tall grasses and rocks must seem like giants to them!
Cat walks are also a great way to slim down fat cats (both our cats are neutered) apart from giving them special versions of cat nuts for such animals.
The best thing however is that cat walks fit very well into our sense of walking, with lots of stops to look at unusual plants and extensive views and which are gradually becoming shorter and slower. Who wants an over-energetic hound at our age when cats can sense our requirements so much better and decide for us when it a good time to sit down and have a rest, especially when Longoio is finally returned to!
Our cat walks are so much better than Prada’s or even Balenciaga’s and our cats so much more beautiful and elegant than those things that walk on them in the fashion houses!
PS Blog now continues at http://longoio2.wordpress.com
From London to Longoio (and Lucca and beyond) Part One 
My Tallulah would never suffer the indignity of being walked on a lead. I tried a couple of times because she liked to follow me on walks and I worried about her getting lost. Whenever I put a lead on her collar she suddenly became much heavier than her 2.5 kilos and seemed rooted to the ground, nothing would move her. I gave up.
Let me go, you blind, heartless and unutterable fool,
For you have lost my love
And cannot keep me
At a leash’s end
Like a stinking dog.
Let me go!
Let me go!
Let me go!
Ere my heart breaks.
For I am a cat
And you cannot bind me
As you have tethered your every love
To its destruction.
What more could you desire
Than that I sat upon your knee
And gave you company?
What else could you demand
Than that I was content to curl before the fireside
And lend your house the blessing of my presence?
And so because you are a weakling,
You have tied me to your failures.
All I would have had you be,
And Now I know you are not,
Has parted us forever.
For you have robbed me of my dignity,
And I can love you nevermore.
TETHER – Paul Gallico
For Napoleone and Carlotta, Miss Amy, Alfeo and Pietro, also Pusskin and Tallulah, and all free thinking cats around the world!
So correct!
Carlotta and Mr Napoleon are the most wonderful cats imaginable they are unlike some extremely sociable with us it is always a joy to go walkers with them they are even great joy in helping us on our down days and it is a proven scientific effect for both old and young in helping overcome the winter blues especially so out there invest in a cat better than popping pills any day plus the bonus that they are excellent mousers!
absolutely!