The reason why cats sometimes, perhaps rarely, like to ‘take walks’ with their owners is not the same reason why dogs often take walks with their owners. The difference in reason goes to the very heart of the feline and canine character. This is not to say that cats cannot be trained to walk on a lead but you won’t achieve the same kind of strict obedience displayed by dogs under the circumstances.
There is a difference between cats and dogs on a fundamental aspect of their social lives. Except for a pride of lions, “adult cats do not go for walks together. They do not explore together, hunt together, flee together or migrate together”. The words are those of Dr. Desmond Morris. Cats are solitary creatures; that’s the point.
He adds that for a cat, it is inexplicable that they should want to go for a communal walk with their owner. This is in complete contrast to dogs who like to do exactly that. For the dog, “group movement is the most natural thing on earth. But cat owners must walk alone”.
But the fact of the matter is that cats sometimes do accompany their owners on short walks. It happens to me. Every morning my cat follows me down the road, on the pavement (sidewalk) when I go and buy the paper. He stops short of the full distance because he ends up out of his territory which frightens him.
And the reason why he does this is because, as explained by Dr. Desmond Morris, he is following me, his surrogate mother, as if I am leading him away from the ‘nest’ during his development as a kitten to independent adulthood.
My cat is behaving like a kitten in relation to me. This is despite being an adult. I’ve mentioned this before many times as have other people. Adult cats are kept in a mental state of being a kitten because of the relationship between human caregiver and cat companion. It’s one of mother-to-kitten so despite the fact that their cat is an adult they behave like a kitten.
Which is why under certain circumstances they can follow their surrogate mother when outside the home for a distance which takes them to the boundary of their home range.
In contrast, the dog is a pack animal, as we all know, in which group movement is entirely natural and in which the owner becomes the alpha male, pack leader, followed by his dog companion.
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