Taking a cat to a park?
Taking a cat to a park? You never see it. I would have liked to have taken a cat on a leash to Richmond Park today. It would have been a failure but I would have liked to have shared the moment with my cat!
I have just come back from Richmond Park. It is close to where I live. As you can see it is a beautiful place for people and potentially cats (on a leash). Yes, it’s the old leash argument again.
This is an excuse show to how charming Richmond Park is. They are just snapshots, nothing special. It is the place that is special. This is a place where you can refresh the spirit. It puts a person in touch with nature. It is better than being in the country because the whole park is open to walking and there are no cows cow pats and mud, just deer, lush grass and a light breeze.
| Useful links |
|---|
| Anxiety - reduce it |
| FULL Maine Coon guide - lots of pages |
| Children and cats - important |
Here is another landscape picture of Richmond Park:
It doesn’t look to have as many trees as our Parks up North do.
Yes I often feel that cats miss out on such beautiful places. They must have loved living in the wild with all their freedom, before we came along, it makes me sad that they lost that, dangerous as it was sometimes, it was how they were born to live their natural lives.
Here is one more of Richmond Park:
Beautiful!
stunning!
A quiet part which cats would love if they didn’t hate journeys and being away from familiar things.
Hardwick Park would be a cat’s paradise with the birds and squirrels, I’m quite surprised there are no feral colonies there.
That looks a bit like Richmond Park. Big, not many people. Quiet. As you both say cats don’t travel very well and there are too many potential hazards. I wish our cats could experience what we experience in these beautiful places.
Imagine a cat among these lol
Babz is surrounded by ducks, she said their wet feathers felt lovely against her feet
“If you love cats you love ducks”….lol
I love ducks. “A cat amongst the pigeons” comes to mind. Just change pigeons for ducks.
We take lots of food but it’s never enough as there are so many, they follow us for a while quacking for more lol and we expect a peck or two, but the swans are most scary when they want more, we don’t stop to take their photo!
I love that photo of Babz among a herd of ducks!
You say you have no wildlife in London, Michael, but those deer are amazing!
Those are some amazing photos of Richmond Park, Michael. Well done! I really enjoyed them!
I got a laugh out of your comment that there are no cow pies (we call them cow pies) and mud like in the country. Cow pies and mud wouldn’t bother me any. You are perhaps more of a city person.
We had two teenagers in our group with us this weekend up north at camp. I had them in my car at one point and one of the boys suddenly asked me, “”What’s that smell, Ruth?!!!” He was really freaked out. A farmer must have spread some manure on his field. I have no sense of smell, but I can only guess that he had smelled that, since skunk I can usually detect. He was just so amazed that the country could smell so bad.
The thing about Richmond Park is that it drains well so it is always dry and beautiful to walk on. You can walk around the whole place freely. There are very few people walking in it. You see deer herds occasionally. You feel and hear the wind. The trees talk to you. There is peace. You are amongst the best of nature. It is better than the countryside! LOL Not quite but I think you can get the point. Great place for a cat but….not much hassle getting him there.
I can’t believe so few people go there. If I lived nearby I’d be going there every day.
This is a picture of Scout Lake (really more of a pond) in Greendale, Wisconsin. I always thought Monty would like it there, but I’ve never taken him. There are lots of ducks and geese around and I always thought he’d be interested in them. We had a cat when I was a kid who could come with us anywhere, like a dog, but that is quite rare and although she enjoyed traveling with us in the car, I can’t pretend that Monty likes it or that a visit to this park wouldn’t be a traumatic experience for him and not a nice one.
How lovely, I’d love to walk there Ruth, it looks a bit like Hardwick Park where Babz and I love to go, it’s about a 20 minute drive from us.
It has a lake and trees and allsorts of interesting things around, this is me with a beautiful lady carved from a tree.
Babz feeding the ducks
I still wonder how Monty would react to ducks– they are about as big as he is, some of them.
Can we agree that we like ducks almost as much as we like cats?
Almost but not quite 🙂
What an interesting carving!
It’s lovely isn’t it? There are various animals carved too and a Palace of Minerva and all kind of historical stuff and beautiful walks and picnic spots too.
This is Neptune in the lake.
It looks great. It is a shame that the domestic cat does not fit in really well with the modern world. I don’t mean that negatively. But they don’t like cat carriers, cars and being taken to nice places that they would thoroughly enjoy. If they were a bit more domesticated they would have a better life. But they are one whisker away from the wildcat from whence they came.
You live amongst some beautiful landscapes. Mind you you can’t get more beautiful than Richmond Park, which is in London. It is huge. It takes about 50 minutes to walk across it (walking at a good pace).
beautiful picture
You can see a plane going in to land at Heathrow about 5 miles away. The best light is at dusk and dawn.
Oh yes I can see the plane now, I hadn’t noticed that!
I’m not sure how big Hardwick Park is but you can spend a whole day there walking the different walks, we pay £3 in the car park to stay as long as we want to.
To me a cat on a leash in a public place is in danger! Dogs are supposed to be on leashes and most are, but just supposing one wasn’t, or one got out of control if it spotted a cat on a leash. A lot of people take their dogs to parks. Most dogs chase cats if they see one, cats naturally run and even the quietest, gentlest cat can become a hissing spitting clawing fury when he is threatened by a dog. He’d feel doubly vulnerable and scared if tethered to a person with no escape.
You may be able to pick the cat up in time but the dog won’t give up easily.
Sorry but I have in my mind an image of mayhem, of people yelling, a terrified cat and a persistent dog jumping at the person holding the cat.
Cats are not meant to be tethered and taken to public places, it’s not fair on them.
I too wish cats could go anywhere with us happily and safely but as Babz already said, if anyone wants to take a pet companion out with them on a leash…..get a dog!
Good point. I was thinking that if the cat is close to the person the person is able to control things and Richmond Park is deserted on weekdays. It is a vast place and no one there really. The odd person. Certainly no dogs.
A park with no dogs? Why does no one much go there, it’s so beautiful!
I wish we had one like that here, there are always lots of people and dogs around our local ones.
Ruth, I think the slight difference in opinion comes from human population density. Where you are there are 100 people per square kilometre and in London where I am there are 5000 people per square kilometre – 50 times the density. Cats are better off up north. There is less danger.
The stats come from the government.
Also, Richmond Park is enormous. It is like being in the countryside. It would take about an hour to walk across it, walking fast. It takes about 20 mins to drive around it.
It only takes one person with one uncontrolled dog to injure or even kill a cat, no matter how many people there are, gangs of yobs gather here in public places, just look at poor little Chester’s trauma.
I would never ever take a cat vulnerable on a leash to any place there might be any danger at all.
Well said Ruth. You are right. It is too dangerous.
Yes, sad but true 🙁
What a beautiful place, it looks lovely for a visit to recharge the human batteries. Not sure about taking a cat there on a leash, the space might be overwhelming to the home loving cat, maybe you could borrow a dog for an hour or so?
I fear you are correct, Babz. But I would enjoy taking my cat if he could walk on a leash and if he was used that sort of thing and strange places.
Richmond Park looks a beautiful place……for people.
When we go to lovely places we feel sad that our cats can’t have the same pleasure but then we think well they wouldn’t like it anyway because their pleasure is in their own garden and territory they know and they don’t need to go to other places to be happy.
I agree Ruth. They would be happy with just a post card! Lol
lol good one Dorothy you truly know cats.
You have a private garden but a lot people don’t. It would be nice for a cat to enjoy a park as a person does. But I agree that a cat would probably be frightened because it would all be too strange in place that was out his territory. I still believe a cat could become acclimatised to that sort of change.
Dream on Michael, like me you want an ideal world where ‘the lion lies with the lamb’
Anyway, why should cats have to become acclimatised to changes which put them in danger, it wouldn’t be for the cats benefit, it would be for the persons, cats don’t want or need to go to public places, their vey nature makes them far too vulnerable.
I agree I am dreaming. I think what I am saying is that if a cat is used to leash walking and likes it and the park is safe then under these circumstances it would be beneficial to both cat and person. But as agreed these conditions don’t occur or rarely occur. The obstacle is a cat enjoying being on a leash. That is an adaptation that is unusual.
What I am looking for is a way for the cat to enjoy nature safely in a place like London. Often they simply are not able to. It is a big compromise.
What a beautiful spot in the world. So close to London too, eh? The deer are beautiful. It looks so natural and peaceful. I hope you go there often. Charlie would rather stay home of course. But I know a few cats who would enjoy it. Thanks for sharing.
It is beautiful. I still think under the right circumstances a cat would enjoy it. It is very quiet and very large. I can drive there in 5 minutes.