Cat experts – my cat has taken to following me and the dog on our morning walks!

About 3 weeks ago I moved back into my place with my GF and the dog and cats. I always take the dog out at about 6 every morning and over the past 2 weeks one of the cats has been regularly joining me on my walk! I leave with the dog and about a minute later hear a meow and Dexter the cat will trot up behind us!

To some extent all the cats have done this but they always have followed the me the final 100 or so metres home when we were living in my GFs place. They never made the effort to join me at the start of the walk and follow me all the way round!

Dexter the cat is about 4 years old, he is very friendly but can be a bit nervous! Could he be following us to explore the surrounding area with familiar company? I’m just a bit curious as to why he is doing this! I find it quite cute!

any ideas? Its new behavior and Dexter is the only one doing it! Is he plotting something? Maybe looking for a suitable place to bury the bodies…..?

What mobile network are you on?

Ours will follow us up the road 100m or so then inevitably sees something way more interesting and shoots off

The tail will tell you everything you need to know:

Ours used to follow us on evening walks – upto about a mile away.

My previous cat used to do this, and the current cat turned up at our house as a kitten after following me and the dog home.

Had a cat called Sonic that used to do this, also my mates cat would walk for miles with him and the two dogs. They lived up on the Berkshire Downs so no issues with traffic, Sonic got confused on Worcester racecourse once and I had to go find her one night. Sonic was a bit odd.

Cats do what the hell they want 😆

My cat does this – not as bad as she used to, but I have to sneak out or she follows me.

How far does he follow you ? Mine will get about 100 metres from the house then find a garden to hide in until I come back for her.

Kind of a pain. Big pain if I am walking to the bus stop. (must get the cat door fixed)

Used to see this regularly on my bike commute, a woman with a young child, dog on a lead, (well behaved) and the bloody cat wandering all over the place or hiding until I got close then deciding the opposite side of the path was preferable. 🙂

Shared path though, so the cat has just a much right to be using it. Just had to slow down.

It’s all to do with territory, I guess.

I used to go mountain biking and a load of blokes used to follow me and mark their territory by peeing on trees.

he is very friendly but can be a bit nervous! Could he be following us to explore the surrounding area with familiar company? I’m just a bit curious as to why he is doing this! I find it quite cute!

I wouldn’t encourage it. Yes I think there is little doubt that he is doing it because he feels secure with you. The problem may arise if he over stretches himself and finds that he can’t cope with being in strange surroundings far from home.

Under those circumstances anything could spook him, a loud noise, a dog, etc. Without his normal bolt holes he might take off and end up completely lost or crossing a busy road etc.

You say that he’s a nervous cat so it’s an easy scenario to image. I would be worried if a cat strayed much more than 50-100 metres from its home.

sounds like you were letting the cats out almost immediately aftre you moved in?

Aren’t you supposed to keep them in for a few weeks to get them to think that where they are is their new home? Maybe your cat hasn’t worked out you’re not going back to the old place each day?

He tends to follow me all the way home and I let him in! I figure he is just sussing out the area which is all a bit new to him. Plus its pretty open and wild up at my place unlike where we were before.

I am wondering if the others will start joining me on the walks too, one of them could do with the exercise!

Yup, mine did too. I had two Springs at the same time and the cat (Sally) would follow us over the road into the woods then along that same path for about 15mins then scuttle off into the mulch. On our return (hours sometimes) she’d follow us back over the road and into the house.
My dogs didn’t bat an eye to this, neither did I TBH until my next door neighbour pointed it out and thought it odd.

They were kept in for about a week and then they escaped. To be fair Its all fields and stuff up with me so I am not too concerned about them getting lost. They are all in most of the time eating me out of house and home! There are 3 of them so I am certain they have made a decent job of marking out a territory and they know where they are!

The walk doesn’t really go that far from my house its a nice circular route taking in the finest aspects of a small welsh semi rural village (ie a lot of sheep and slate).

It happens to us. They’re bezzie mates, there’s not a lot of excitement in a cats life and so it’s tagging along. They’re all social animals and so why not.

Two dogs and two cats which makes it interesting. They all start chasing each other around. Quite amusing as they’re not small dogs and one of them only has 3 legs.

To be fair Its all fields and stuff up with me so I am not too concerned about them getting lost. They are all in most of the time eating me out of house and home! There are 3 of them so I am certain they have made a decent job of marking out a territory and they know where they are!

The walk doesn’t really go that far from my house its a nice circular route taking in the finest aspects of a small welsh semi rural village (ie a lot of sheep and slate).

I wouldn’t worry in that case. What would concern me would be if he got more and more lost due to panic and stress or crossed a busy road.

Old guy used to walk his cat (on a lead) through Newport (IOW) High Street. A bizarre sight especially on a busy Saturday morning.

My cat has a locator beacon – range about 100 metres so if she wanders off I can always find her. It also flashes and beeps when you want to find her, so I am making progress with summoning her using a rewards system. Who says you can’t train cats.

Mine does this with me when I head out with the dog. Only for about 200-300 meters though.
The funny thing is the cat hates the dog so doesn’t walk with us. He garden hops and appears at the next drive way then we walk past he bolts it over the next fence ready to appear at the next drive way!

I have an odd neighbour who also walks his cat on a lead.

My cat has a locator beacon

Details?

My old cat decided to take to follow us walking the dog in their old age, though a discouraged it due to the large amount of dogs walking in the local park. No idea why she started doing it?

Its being sent out as a spy by the others, making sure your not plotting anything with the dog.

When I was a kid, our cat would walk to school with me then always be sat at the end of the lane waiting for me at the end of the day.

He also used to sit right in the middle of the road with cars going either side of him playing dare with all the cars.

I loved that cat 🙂

One of our cats follows me and the dog on the 6AM walk. A good half mile or so. Dodging in and out gardens. Don’t think the territory matters for him as he is the top cat in the street.

My wife when she was a teenager had a cat she walked to the local park on a collar and lead. But the Byres Rd area of Glasgow is tolerant of the less conventional.

He’s scoping out which of the neighbours’ gardens he’d most like to crap all over.

My next door neighbours cat does this. Ours don’t. Dinks won’t leave the house unless it’s via the back as she’s afraid of the front of the house and Merlin just doesn’t like leaving the house, ever.

Yeah they do that. Back when we had cats when I was living at home they’d do that.

Yes, your cat is very special

This:

http://www.loc8tor.com/uk/pets/

Somebody on here suggested it. I moved house recently about half a click from my old address so was worried she would go back to her old house.

It doesn’t have the range they claim and needs line of sight e.g. it won’t detect her through stone walls, but it flashes and makes a noise that I can’t hear, or maybe she sees the flash, anyway with a rewards program I beep her before her dinner and she appears.

Has been very useful – although not the time she was unwell so I kept her in and took it off – eventually found her under the bath, with the aid of a camera that just fitted in the gap !

Yeah my cat used to follow us for miles around the local fields and woods, she loved it!

Sounds like a case of cat aids.

cheers Hel’s, interesting.. would like to know where mine goes (& who feeds her!)

Hels, Just seen the link to the loc8tor. Do all the other cats in the neighbourhood think your cat has an ASBO?

I bought a tiny GPS tracker to put on mine. One of them was doing a lot of travelling per day. Something like 6-7km. Unfortunately she got run over in August as she crossed a road on her way home.

its interesting to see where they go but the area they cover is so vast that it would be pretty tough to find them. It was a Gpaws tracker I had. Its not live tracking but you download after you retrieve it from the cat.

Is it a copy cat ?

z1ppy – the one I have doesn’t tell you where she goes, it is to locate her, it doesn’t collect GPS data like some. I looked at those, but I just want to know where she is if I lose her, I don’t care where she has been if she comes back, if you see what I mean.

muppetWrangler – the device does not allow me to read cat minds.

the device does not allow me to read cat minds.

But does it allow you to monitor conversations with other cats ?

Ernie for that you need the special tinfoil model.

Ours follows the window cleaner on his round.
Sits at the foot of his ladder at every house, staring up at him, lovestruck.

Weird creature.
If I get a ladder out she’s up it within seconds, gets stuck and has to be rescued.