#catisadog

I know Sokka has some qualities that aren’t very cat-like, but this one really caught me by surprise. 

He chewed up my textbook. It’s a rental. Do you think they will buy the excuse, “My cat ate my homework?”

On the other hand, if he were a dog, I’d really have to struggle against the cliché of the whole thing, so that’s a plus I guess.

He lacks other cat talents as well. For one thing, he’s not the least bit graceful or tactful.

Here he’s trying to come to class in my backpack and thinks he’s being sneaky.

Below is what I woke-up to while we were staying at someone’s house. You can see the regret of whatever ill-conceived idea led to this predicament in his thousand-yard stare. He’s constantly getting too rowdy and falling off/running into things.

He also loves to play in my bathtub. 

My bathtub has a glass door that’s usually open. 

Yesterday he took a full-speed running leap into the bathtub, only to find that the door was closed. In his surprise he ricocheted off the glass door and landed in the nearby toilet. 

With equal surprise, he leaped out of the toilet, and, due to his wet feet, ran in place like Scooby-Doo for several strides. 

I know what you’re going to think when I say that I take my cat for walks on a leash. You’re going to picture something like this:

But actually, this is one of Sokka’s many qualities that make him more like a dog than a cat. He loves going for walks. He loves rides in the car. He loves all of the fearless adventures normally associated with dogs. He caught on to the whole leash idea fairly quickly—here he is on his first trip to our neighborhood park:

You may wonder, “How exactly does one teach a cat to walk on a leash?” Well for starters, it was pretty natural for him. Not to mention he became accustomed to wearing the harness at an early age.

At first, I would let him wear the harness around the house, and then we would go on walks just a couple dozen feet outside our front door. He’d get treats every time he wore it to create a positive association.

From there we moved on to wearing it to the car for short car rides, and then, eventually, all the way to the park. 

Here he is people watching while we wait for the train.

There are some how-to instructions online using different leash training methods, if that’s your sort of thing. Here is what the ASPCA recommends.  For some cats, I’d imagine getting the harness on them to start with could be a bit of a fiasco.

I do usually end up carrying him the few blocks to the park because otherwise he takes too long—stopping to investigate everything and everyone who passes by us.

Once there however, he treats the play structure and picnic table like an obstacle course, and chases bugs through the grass. I’ll leave you with some photos from our park excursion on the lovely day we had earlier this week: