My life on a string

You all probably know we have a cat and the cat is named Jade. She’s gray with two white spots on her belly that are not normally visible and she has green eyes. Hence, the name. Just a plain ol’ DSH (domestic short hair) that came from the Humane Society of Portland. A freebie! Well! The kind that use to be free anyway. Now it’s $85. That is another story. At any rate she’s just a “throw away cat” that came from the pound. A cat to see if it was possible to have a cat as full time RV’ers.

I’m a dog person. Kat, with a name like that, is not. Kat is a cat person. My first clue came when we met and I realized her license plate was personalized “CATCRAZY”. You get the point. Anyway we have considered getting a pet for a while but didn’t agree much on what kind of pet. But we thought about it, and we have watched fellow RV’ers walk their dogs in the dark of night, early and late, and during driving rain and thunderstorms, and have said to each other, “I don’t think so”! We have walked around RV parks and campgrounds and saw dogs yapping and crapping all over the place and said to each other, “YUK”!!!!, I don’t think so! And besides, I had the best traveling dog a guy could ever have in Binx, a calm and mellow Dalmatian that was as loyal as any dog ever was. Still, he required walking, cleaning up after, and space that we just don’t have. And they probably aren’t making anymore like Binx anyway.

Soooo………………..We got the cat, and the cat was Jade! Actually it was and is Bago Jade. Naming her was just one of those cute little things pet owners do when they get a new pet and they’re so proud of themselves and their new pet. The Bago in Jade’s case is short for Winnebago, our brand of motorhome. Of course now it’s just Jade, well, it’s never Bago Jade anyway. She has all sorts and kinds of names. She can be the ‘Brat cat’, ‘you stupid cat’, ‘butt plug’, ‘dingleberry’, ‘the freakazoid’, ‘Bitch cat’, ‘feral bitch’, or just ‘BC’, which covers a couple of the aforementioned. All of which are meant with love and affection, of course.

We knew when we got Jade that she would need to be able to do a couple of things. She needed to be able to travel and she needed to be able to stay on a collar and leash. An RV is not a big enough place for just an inside cat. Doors are too close and windows are too open and accessible for ‘escape artist’ cats. Jade passed her first two tests with flying colors. Actually we tried her on a leash at the Humane Society and she was OK. Collars were a little bit of a problem. We’ve tried harnesses but they don’t work so well. It’s the kind of thing that just paralyzes a cat, or so it would seem. And then there’s the ripping and shredding thing. Putting a harness on a cat that doesn’t like a harness when the harness attaches on the underside near those feet is not a prudent or safe thing to do. It can get nasty. Cat collars won’t work in our case because they have that stretch release on them. But, not too long before we got Jade, Kat had seen a cat at a “rally” and it was on a leash with a dog collar. The kind that don’t have the ‘stretch and release’ thing. That is now what we do! We are careful that she isn’t left alone to climb over a tree branch or picnic table where she can be left to dangle but other than that the dog collar works very well and is generally not in reach of the claws when you put it on. But like I said you have to watch they don’t get stuck somewhere and Jade has tried it a couple of times. Once she climbed into a permanently fixed bird feeder to wait on lunch and forgot which way she came in and went out the wrong way. Fortunately, it was on a wooden post and she climbed back in, but it was kind of humorous seeing her scramble back up that post. And in this case we were there, and it began the learning process for us all. Her second test, learning to travel, was even easier, almost like ‘falling off a log’. Except in this case it was find a ‘hidey hole’. We found out quickly that she will travel, but that don’t mean she likes it. When the motor starts she finds a hole. It can be in the pillows on the bed or behind the couch. Right now it’s behind the couch, although it may change back to the bed. But she travels well and is never under foot which is great. We don’t encourage her to be out anymore, it’s good the way it is.

Jade has an uncanny ability to tell when we have reached our destination. We can drive for miles and stop at rest areas, grocery stores, gas stations, all manner of places, and she remains hidden, but when we pull into our campsite she’s out of her ‘hidey hole’ and ready to go outside. We have taken to having a milk jug full of water and her ‘string’ attached to it right by the door and when we get to a campsite we attach her to the milk jug and throw both out the door. She does like it outside and this keeps her safe and out of the way, and allows us easy access to get setup. The milk jug is good for portability too. Sometimes she likes to be where we are or near the bushes where she can see birds and critters, so we just move the milk jug. The usual practice is to go ‘jacks down’ (a little RV talk) get all set up and then tie Jade out more permanently. I have a 15’ line attached to two tent stakes that I drive in the ground and attach her string to so she can slide up and down and get a little more traveling space. Then all we have to do is keep her untangled from tables, chairs, trees and such. But she is smart and does a pretty good job of staying and getting free, if she doesn’t, she is so much better than any dog about being stuck. She just waits or maybe figures it out. No straining and stretching, barking, or whining.

Jade spends hours just watching and hoping that some bird, chipmunk, squirrel or other critter will come into her range. She has caught a couple of unfortunate birds, de-tailed a couple of lizards and skinks, killed at least one, played with a few toads and frogs, and shredded a shrew or two. All in almost complete silence I might add, no carrying on at all. When there are no critters to entertain she will revert to chasing bugs and eating spiders, although she leaves the caterpillars and dung beetles alone. I think maybe the caterpillars tickle and the dung beetles she finds useful. She almost always prefers the litter box to outside but occasionally there is an urgent need and it is after that that she finds the dung beetles useful. They do perform a service. To deviate just a bit, dung beetles do exist and they do so in Georgia. I guess that’s what they are? They are beetles and they roll little balls of dung across the landscape. I guess it could be raccoon crap? Whatever? Jade watches but does not touch. One way or the other I guess she figures they’re cleaning crap out of her yard. I digress! Jade also has lots and lots of down time. She is a cat! She spends lots of time sunbathing on her back in the warm sun on cooler days, and we swear sometimes she’s trying to darken her white spots. When she’s all done with outside or needs a nibble or drink she uses the ‘knocker’ to get our attention to open the door. All RV doors have a hook and latch to keep the door open when desired. This hook hangs on a hinge at the bottom of the door. Over time she has learned that when it rattles we open the door. So now she bats at it when she wants in, her ‘knocker’.

Inside it’s mostly eating or more downtime on a choice of beds. I think she’s up to three of four now. Those are just hers. But like all cats she pretty much lays where she wants. She has a couple of places to scratch and is pretty good about using them. We did replace the lower screen on the door but that was no big deal. We have the squirt water bottle for any misbehaving and it’s effective. Three of four times a week she will turn into the ‘freakazoid and run up and down the hall scattering rugs and scarring toes (ours I mean!), and diving behind the couch. Almost every night she must play a little ‘flashlight’ and drives Kat to distraction until she does. ‘Flashlight’ is chasing the ‘laser light’ spot around on the floor or outside on grass or concrete. That’s just about her favorite thing to do. If she happens to get loose we will even grab the laser light to get her to chase it back into the RV.

Jade is not a ‘lap’ cat. Oh, every once in a while she will crawl up to get her ears and cheeks scratched but it doesn’t last long. She sleeps on her bed, not ours, and that is good. She likes us to come outside and sit so she can wind herself around our folding chairs and have some company. Here at Cooper Furnace she has taken to jumping up on the picnic table, when I return from my morning bike ride to unlock the gate, so I can give her a good brushing and scratching. Mostly she is our silent companion to talk too, blame all those little things on, and have around for the comfort it brings. Maybe she ain’t a dog, but she is a pretty darn good cat!

And if you’re an RV’er reading this, inside cats can work on the outside! At least in some cases. But don’t call me.

PS. The first thing we look at on any prospective new RV is where to put the litter box.