LAST CALL
Pleszczynski, Wladyslaw
LAST CALL WLADYSLAW PLESZCZYNSKI On the Cat Walk T STARTED A FEW YEARS AGO when I worked at home. An hour or so before sunset the doggie would end her slumbers, stretch and wag her tail to...
...The doggie is always the first to want to head back...
...The return home has its own routines...
...A pattern develops...
...Out would come her collar and leash and within a minute or two we'd have worked our way to the end of the driveway...
...Here the cats explore the newly upgraded playground and check out the back side of bushes that line the school's brick walls...
...If my wife or sons are with me, I hand one of them the leash and walk ahead up our quiet street...
...They're the real walkers in the family, and the doggie can't stand it when they're the center of attention...
...Big ruddy can't match him here, but don't write him off...
...In due course we'll have reached the end of our street, then a sharp left and soon we're on a path leading up hill to our destination: a 100 x 120 yard grassy school field, lined on three sides by tall trees, with the school itself stretching atop a ridge along the fourth side...
...The field is his parade ground, as with tail erect he prances along in perfect step...
...She's a mini-dachshund, you see, not eager to go out into the greater world unless she's carried...
...He keeps his tail cautiously down...
...Decades ago in Indiana I had a tortoise-shell longhair named Arthur, the only cat who ever went on walks with me...
...Here and there they check out favorite storm drains for chipmunks or mice, stops that allow 66 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR NOVEMBER 2003 the doggie to ask to be carried...
...But he did so only out of loyalty and fear of loneliness...
...It was a small bird, a gift he'd hunted up for us and carried all this distance...
...As he approached I could see he had something in his mouth...
...Her herding instinct does the jump-starting...
...Not so our current pair...
...Both cats are neutered, their little bellies rocking left and right as they jog...
...On wet days we'll retreat to the walkways and attractions next to the school...
...The doggie is now moving...
...As her alpha male I know she'll come running after...
...At the start of our walk a few months back, he was focused on something in the ivy and didn't join us...
...They live to be outdoors, as curious about their surroundings as the doggie is suspicious...
...But when we reached the end of our street I looked back and saw him dash out of the driveway and head toward us, 150 yards away...
...A hundred yards from the house he'd be begging me to turn back...
...Even the doggie was touched...
...An hour or so before sunset the doggie would end her slumbers, stretch and wag her tail to request a walk...
...Off goes the dog's leash and soon she's plying the grass like a torpedo in search of a destroyer cat...
...There are ways to get around this...
...For all their fierce independence (good luck keeping one on your lap for even a split second), they're happiest to follow us anywhere...
...Whereupon she'd freeze, and cattle prods couldn't get her to take another step...
...If we're on the field, the blue will make sure to come racing off it and leap down the hill toward the path, but not before scurrying up a tree or two, just to earn the usual plaudits...
...He prefers the edge of the field, where the trees and brush below offer the security he'll need if a stranger or another dog shows up...
...There's another way to get her going: our cats need to be in the picture...
...It's the animals' idea of a front lawn...
...The fearless blue sidesteps her with aplomb...
...We waited for him near the field...
...The skinny blue trots alongside, the heavy ruddy already playing straggler ten yards behind...
...They're Abyssinian half-brothers, one ruddy (and big and fat), the other blue (meaning silvery and cream, and half his half-brother's size...
...The fat ruddy, though, either runs away or lifts a paw in a halfhearted move to show his annoyance...
...Not the blue, of course...
Vol. 36 • November 2003 • No. 6
