I dunno... something about a cat on a leash?

It might be dangerous territory to enter into a blather about a cat on a leash, though. The pointless photo would be unpointless, and we all know that the blog will turn into a pumpkin if it ever comes to a point.

Ah well, we'll give it a try anyway since I can't think of anything else to type about.

For those new to the program, the cat on a leash in the last few photos is Max. He's technically one of my father's cats, but since I'm here nearly every weekend (and I live in a no-pets apartment) I think he could be counted as my cat too. I know from the way he barges into my room at godawful in the morning most days that he considers me his person, so I think it's only fair to reciprocate.

Max is... well, Max is needy. Max needs his people around him. He likes to be outside -- change that to he DEMANDS to be outside as soon as the weather gets above 0C -- but only if someone's there with him. Good thing, too, because he's not allowed out otherwise. More on that in a second. Anyway, Max is the type of cat you need to show people who think that cats are antisocial. Max would pester them out of that belief in a hurry. Max needs to help with whatever you're doing, Max needs to have his regular cuddle routine adhered to... Max is a pet. No two ways about it.

Max's co-cat, Penny (aka Lumpy), is very much more your stereotypical CAT cat, by the way. Oh, she likes attention and is very talkative, but where Max is a busybody Penny kind of just floats through life. You can even see the difference in the way they walk. Penny's very cat-delicate, and Max walks like a bulldog. There's no other way I can describe it, really.

Anyway, back to the on a leash part. Max is a very good example of why cats shouldn't be allowed to roam free. I mean, there are lots of reasons why cats shouldn't roam free (for their own health, for one thing, or to prevent them from messing up the neighbours' gardens), but I'm going to touch on the more work-related one for me. If Max were allowed to roam around the garden, our local bird population would be significantly lowered. He loves to hunt. Almost anything. He's a little too fond of bees for my liking, for example, but he especially loves to hunt birds. He's quick, too. Quick enough that he's managed to catch a couple over the years even when he's on the leash. It's instinct for him, and it has nothing to do with how well he's fed (does anyone out there still believe that old fallacy that a well-fed cat won't hunt? I can assure you from personal experience that it's complete and utter bullcrap). If something moves, Max will want to catch it. Plain and simple. It wouldn't surprise me to find that he'd be capable of killing a bird a day just for the sheer sport of it. Thank goodness that the leash -- and our supervision -- keeps it from happening. For the most part.

Now... oh, wait. The topic of conversation has just come to visit. Give me a moment.

Ok, back to the message. Imagine Max as a free-range cat. Imagine a bird a day, at the very least. Now multiply that by all of the cats that are running around out there unsupervised. That's a helluva lot of birds, don't you think? Birds killed by an introduced predator that doesn't belong in our ecosystem. If it was pythons in the Everglades people would be freaked out, but since cats are cute and fluffy it's harder to convince people that they're a problem.

Look, I like cats. A lot. I grew up with cats and dogs (and, erm, gerbils. And a couple of monkeys...). I hate seeing either of them roaming loose. It's really bad for the health and life span of the pets, but it's even worse for the system that they end up mucking around with. And it's totally, frustratingly irresponsible of the pet owner to let it happen.

There are still some people out there who think it's somehow cruel to confine a cat, and I'm sorry but it's not. A cat that's spent its whole life indoors can be perfectly happy. It's true that a rescued cat that hasn't might get frustrated to be inside, but there are ways to get around that. Build an enclosed cat run, for example. Cat stays safe; environment stays safe. Train your cat to a leash (and yes, it's possible for a cat to be perfectly happy on a leash), but only if you plan to supervise it.

And don't ever make the mistake of thinking that sweet little Fluffy Whatsername would never ever hurt anything. A predator is a predator is a predator, even if that predator happens to like to have her belly rubbed.