Adventure Cats

Adventure Cats, Living Nine Lives To the Fullest by Laura J. Moss is the most recent cat enthusiast book to hit the shelves. The book provides cat parents with the opportunity to teach their cats how to be adventurous felines as well as share stories of successful “adventure cats”. In the next few blog posts, I will review and dissect the book as well as apply the techniques from the book on one of my cats, Messi. I hope you join me and my cat family on this wild ride called Adventure Cats.

The book written by Ms. Moss is broken into two main parts: an introduction, learning basics of turning your cats into adventure cats, and safety tips and the second part is comprised of different stories and environments from winter cats to neighborhood cats. We will take a look at part 1 of the book, the introduction of adventure cats, the basics of teaching your cat to be an adventure cat and several safety tips!

No longer are dogs the only pets that can be taught how to be leashed trained and go on adventurous hikes with their parents. Cats can be trained as well.

The first part of the book introduces the idea of adventure cats. No longer are dogs the only pets that can be taught how to be leashed trained and go on adventurous hikes with their parents. Cats can be trained as well. The introduction gives several short stories of cats that are currently adventuring with their parents and sets the stage of the various sections of the book.

After a convincing introduction, Ms. Moss goes into some of the basics of turning your couch potato cat to an adventure cat. Firstly, she describes how to select the perfect harness for your cat. I highly recommend using a wide, padded harness that small dogs use that will be safer for your cat as well as more comforting for them. After deciding which harness to use, the next step is getting your cat into wearing the harness. I believe that this section is the most important chapter of the book since if your cats cannot get past the 6 steps that are described in the book, it will be very difficult for your cat to be an adventure cat. The six steps go into slowly introducing your cat to the harness, the leash and then to the outside. The cat parents must be very patient and diligent with these six steps. One of the biggest misconceptions from the cat parent is that the cat will be immediately into going outside on a leash. It’s rare for a cat to immediately accustom to the idea, but I truly believe that every cat can be leash trained.

The next chapter introduces clicker training. This training is crucial for when you and your cat go outside on a hike because in the event your cat wanders or you need to get your cat’s attention, the clicker noise will get them to listen to a command. Can you imagine!? Cats listening to you? Here Kitty is the next chapter that continues the idea of command training outside of using a clicker.

Identifying your cat’s body language is crucial when it comes to adventuring outside with your cat so you are able to react and be a responsible cat parent when it comes to their safety.

Once your cat gets used to the harness, leash, going outside for a few times and command training either with your voice or clicker, it’s time to go adventuring! When you are out on a hike, it’s important to know what your cat is communicating. Why is this important? So let’s say your cats’ ears immediately shoot up, this means your cat is alert and there may be something or someone nearby. Identifying your cat’s body language is crucial when it comes to adventuring outside with your cat so you are able to react and be a responsible cat parent when it comes to their safety. The next part of this book teaches this and how to interpret your cat’s body language. A complete page of illustrations shows us exactly what your cat may do and what that means.

If you have ever traveled with a cat before, you know that it can be difficult. In Adventure Cats, there’s a chapter that explains the most helpful ways to travel with your cat  - whether in a car, boat, plane or train. The last chapter of part one of the book is called “Safety Fur-st”. This is a very important chapter because it outlines the basics when it comes to keeping your cat safe when you are out adventuring. Some of the common things kitties can run into while adventuring is weather element such as cold temperatures and the sun, how to keep your kitty hydrated, plants and wildlife, litter time and common first aid techniques. All of these elements are crucial for you and your kitty to have a good and safe time during your hikes.

Overall, the first part of the book is intriguing. As soon as I read the basics of leash training and how to select a harness, I was ready to run to the store to buy one. Granted, some of the steps look very time consuming and will require a lot of patience from me. I am willing to do the work to see if my cats are interested. I hope you follow along in the next few weeks where I will attempt to make one of my five cats an adventure cat (hopefully Messi) by using the tips and tricks noted in the book. I wholeheartedly buy into this concept and I can’t wait to try it!

What do you think about Adventure Cats and letting your cat outside? I would love to hear your thoughts. Also, if you’ve read the book, did it work on your cat? Do you have any success stories? Comment below!