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September 01, 2005

on little cat feet

Spike sits at the front door meowing at us when we take Jack for a walk. So Moo, Herself and I went to Petco and bought him a harness and a leash so he can come with us; and the other night when we took Jack out, we hooked up Spike and brought him outside, too. It was dark out, evening comes on so much earlier now that it's late summer.

We brought Spike into the front yard. "Come on, Spike!" Herself said in a Won't This Be Exciting! tone of voice. Spike ignored her, crouched low, then stretched out and lay down, made himself boneless on the sidewalk. "Come on!" Herself said, tugging a little bit at the leash. Spike lay still. Finally she picked him up and brought him out to the road where Moo, Jack and I waited. She put him down. He lay down.

"Come on, Spikey!" she said and pulled the leash. Spike let her. She pulled again, dragging him a little bit. That was fine with him; he allowed himself to be dragged down the street with no protest, a black shadow on the blacktop. He obviously had no interest in going for a walk, or even in walking, for that matter. "Okay then," Herself said, and kept pulling until we made her stop.

"Spike, you have to learn sometime," she said sternly. Spike ignored her and her tone of voice, preferring to crouch motionless wherever she put him down, so for most of our walk with Jack, Herself carried him in her arms, every once in a while saying "Watch Jack! Do what Jack does!" As far as I could tell, Spike wasn't watching.

When we got back to our street, finally Spike stood. He started to walk. Actually he started to run, toward home. Herself ran with him, holding the leash. Thinking this was a game, Jack ran, too. But when he caught up to Spike, Spike turned on him, hissing, growling low in his throat, as if he didn't know who Jack was--and maybe he didn't, harnessed and leashed and outside in the night for the first time ever. So the walk was over and we had to bring him inside, trembling with indignation.

I guess walking on a leash is not what Spike had in mind. Maybe what Spike has been meowing about when we all leave has nothing to do with really wanting to be with us or be outside; maybe what he's been saying all along is "Don't hurry back."

Posted by JudyLa at 06:00 AM | Comments (0)