It was a wonderful sunny day today, so I got it in my head to take the cats out for walkies on their leashes. Not at the same time, I'm not quite that stupid.

I took out the leashes, and Nikki ran up to see what I was doing, so I took her first. She didn't want me to put the harness on her, as usual, but when it was on her, she was fine this time. No falling over and looking at me with imploring eyes, "Mummy... I... I... I can't walk! Mummy, help me!" No, this time she was fine with the harness, but while I was holding the door open for her to go out in the hallway, Frank sneaked past me. So, I had to throw Nikki inside again and go hunt down Frank. Fortunately, he only went to the stairs, and stopped there. I gathered him up, went to my door, unlocked it, threw in Frank, ran after Nikki who had sneaked out in the meantime, caught her (easy, since she was trailing the leash after her).

We went downstairs with the elevator. Nikki found the concept of the elevator quite shocking. On the ground floor, she wanted to explore the hallway, but I dragged her to the door. Opened the door for her. She went out. I followed. Nikki started screaming her head off. I lifted her up, and she climbed on my shoulder and never stopped screaming. She sounded so worried that I thought it best to take her home again. Besides, I'd left a ventilating window open, and I could hear Frank yowling there - from the third floor!

So I took Nikki home. Then it was Frank's turn. He stood to attention while I put on his harness, like he always does. Frank certainly knows what it means when the harness is put on, it means walkies! Took him down in the elevator and outside. I had to convince him that it was a good idea to go outside, but finally he did, and then he started trotting around the yard. He's such a good boy, he almost walks like a d*g by my side (don't tell him I said that), and if he is going somewhere that I don't want him to go, I just have to say "Frank, not there," and pull a little on the leash, and he will change directions. He also went up and said hello to a woman who came out with a baby in a pushchair. He looked a little suspiciously at the miniature hoomin in the pushchair, but then he is not used to those creatures. After a short stroll, inspecting the grounds, we went home.

Nikki was over the moon to see us again. She purred and headbutted us both like mad. I suppose she had thought that we had abandoned her. Maybe next time, she will want to take a little longer walk, too.

Copyright © Marina Kurten
March 3, 2003