Did you know that today is National Take Your Cat on an Adventure Day? As you might imagine, I think this is a great day. I think more kitties should get a chance to go out and see the world beyond their homes. I do and I have seen lots of fun and exciting things! But before you start planning your great adventure, there’s one big thing you need to think about: your human. Because you can’t go out on an adventure unless your human is prepared for it. If you want to be an adventure cat, you need to have an adventure human. So here are my suggestions for getting your human ready for adventure.
Seven Tips for Your Humans If You Are an Adventure Cat
- Know that humans have different adventure styles. Some humans are outdoorsy, and some aren’t. Take my human — she thinks roughing it is staying in a hotel that’s not near a Target or Whole Foods! So taking her on an outdoor adventure would not be a good idea. We fly places and have urban and indoor adventures. If your human thinks hiking or sailing is more her style, then you should probably do that instead. Whatever your human is most comfortable with is what you should do. If your human is unhappy on an adventure, you probably won’t have a great time either.
- Humans must be properly harness and leash trained. That means they need to find the most secure harness and walking vest for you, and give you lots of treats for wearing it, and for walking on a leash with it. It there is a sudden noise that startles you, you can pull yourself out of an ill-fitting harness so fast that you’ll get lost before you know what happened. My best harness is actually a really simple one, but my human has tested it by pulling me every which way with it and I really can’t get loose! I had to work with her a little to find the best harness and leash setup, but I got lots of treats for all my help.
- Consider your human your bodyguard. This is important human training. The world out there offers lots of fun, but there are also dangers — cars, mean dogs, coyotes and other wild predators. You human needs to be hyper aware to keep you safe from all of them. There are also plants that are not good for you to sniff or take a bite out of, and your human should know about what grows locally that you should steer clear of. Even insects can be dangerous — not all of them are edible, and some are poisonous! You human needs to know the dangerous ones in the area you are visiting.
- Speaking of insects, remember, there are fleas and ticks out there. You need to make sure your human examines you for these every time you return from an outdoor adventure. Even if that outdoors is just around your house. You should have flea and tick protection if you are going to be an adventure cat, but that doesn’t mean those nasty little critters won’t latch onto you — the flea and tick applications do wear off after a while.
- Gradually acclimate your human to adventures. She needs to master the harness and leash thing, and get used to being your bodyguard close to home before taking you any farther than that. She needs to understand your comfort zone, and when to judge that you’ve had enough for the day. This takes some practice.
- If your human is not very adventurous, and you aren’t either, you can still have adventures close to home. Binga enjoys just being on a harness and leash around the patio of our house, and I do too between my bigger adventures. Your human can even make adventures for you by putting together a catio, or creating a fun place for birds and other critters to visit right outside your favorite window so you can watch them from the comfort of your favorite perch.
- Remember that life is an adventure in itself! Tell your human not to be afraid to try something new and different with you — she may be surprised that both your boundaries are a lot bigger than you thought they were!
Great tips Summer.
Great tips Summer!
We have a friend human who’s cat Ziggy lives on a sail boat with her and her hubby n he also travels in the semi if she goes on the reoad with hubby. Ziggy was taught how to “kitty paddle” if he falls in the water and can grab onto a pool noodle.. he’s a brave boy!
MK totally agreed with your human about hotels – but she says add a Starbucks!!!
You have her trained very well! But as hot as it is here right now, our adventure inside is finding the coolest place to flop!
Purrz!
Selina
Django used to go everywhere, however, lately he not wanting to wear his harness and go for walks. He is supposed to go on vacation again with new kitten. Zoee and I like to stay home.
Bodacious
Those are all good points, thanks for walking us through proper training! We do the bird outside the window one, and have thought about catio, but we’re worried about fleas getting through the screens. We’ll come up with something.
I really love that last photo, Summer.
All solid ideas.
These are great tips! Maybe when we move to the suburbs we can start training Mommy. I think she might like that.
Summer, sorry we called you Sparkle. Sometimes our mom’s brain gets confused. She’s old. She calls us by the names of cats that are angels all the time. XOCK, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo
We think this is a great “new” day for cats. Our adventures take place on the catio, except Lily, Mau and Misty May who get to go in the yard and on the front porch. And Fiona sometimes gets to go in the yard when Mom is working in the garden. We wish we could go to the pet store like you do, Sparkle. XOCK, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo
Humans are pretty stubborn and not very easy to train but I’ve got mine right where I want her! Thanks for all the tips Summer!
Hugs, Sammy
Humans sure take a lot of work. Thanks for the great training tips, Summer!
Those are some great tips, Summer. We wish we could get our human to take us outside, but we guess we’ll have to be content being inside Adventure Cats.
Great tips! When TW was looking for a condo, she wanted one with a catio so Nicky could go out and not get far. Alas, there were none available at the time so she settled on the NYC view we’re gonna lose anyway.
Great tips, Summer! I actually think Mudpie would be more of an adventurer than I am!
Well, I didn’t know it was adventure day until a few minutes ago … Please do not mention this to Purrseidon because I’ll never hear the end of it, if you do!
Great advice ! We think that our human is more afraid to try something new with us that we would be. Purrs
You are brave Summer. Most of us would rather stay inside!! I guess we are getting old!
Such beautiful pictures! I would do everything to keep that fur looking so perfect! Human women have perfect hair. You have perfect fur!!
You are by nature an adventurous cat, my two won’t even stick their noses out the apartment door!
Your humans idea of roughing it is the same as mine. 🙂 I should try to take one of my kitties to the pet store sometime.
Hey Summer I missed you good to see you are on another fine adventure.
Hugs madi your bfff
Minko tries to invent his own catventures by going out the doggy door, MOL!
But if meowmy takes him outside on purpose he has a hissy fit! OMC!
Pipo likes his indoor adventures the best…
Meowmy does have a harness from our furbear angel kitties…
Those were all fabulous tips. We sorta wish Mom would take us on adventure sans the harness. MOL
what an awesome blog! Seriously.
Going in the fields is always a big adventure for me. My mum carries me there and back now I don’t have much energy so I can still explore them. She said we nearly had a bigger adventure than we expected when we saw Billy Badger.
Our humans are adventurous, but we prefer to stay indoors.
Glad that you have so much fun on your adventures, Summer, and your tips are really helpful! Anyway, I’m not much of an adventure cat mum, but I happen to live with an adventurous little girl, Gwennie. She tried (successfully) to eat string with a needle still attached to it, stolen from my knitting supplies! Two years later (under a strict no-string policy), she managed to escape our cat-proof balcony and explored outside for two weeks! So I decided to try a leash and harness on her, to help her get safe adventures. Indoors, she was ok with that, but the moment I took her out next to the house, she panicked. Guess I won’t try that again!
We hope you and your human go on lots more adventures even if she’s out of internet range! 🙂
Terrific tips pretty Summer but my Dad is awfully hard to train!
Such a pretty cat, thanks for the share!
Very informative post!! Ours needs lots of training.
This is a great post, Summer!
My mum has been saying for ages she will build me an enclosure or catio but she now says we have to wait until we move to our new place.
Purrs xx
Athena
the boyz have a lotta work in front of them.
Great advice. We are hope Two Two will like an adventure but so far, the outside panics her. We need to work on it some more. She is not a big fan of treats.
Ha. Ours is definitely not an Adventure Hoomin.
These are great tips Summer! I must show these to my cat 🙂
Great advice, Summer! It can be a tricky business training those humans. Thankfully ours are trained pretty well! We hope this post inspires others to take their cats out on adventures!
Great tips! But after this weekend, I have had enough adventure to last me a lifetime XOXO Lucy
We have two cats that love adventure, Chris and Frankie. Puck got scared and freaked out the last time I put a harness on him and opened the door. I think a car drove by and ruined the adventure. I should probably try again.
Great tips, Summer. Our backyard in the country is our main adventure zone.
It might be sometimes difficult to find the right adventure for both cat and human. When it is finally found they are both very happy.