pets and travel

Susa the leash trained cat

Published on April 3, 2011 by Katya in the category pets and travel | Leave a comment

Aside from the rainy days, Susa likes to spend at least half her day tied outside the trailer. We started leash training her as soon almost as we adopted her. The thought of some poor cat locked up in the trailer all day every day without even a chance of eating fresh grass or chasing a butterfly was unbearable. She was already about 6 months old when we got her, but it was surprisingly easy. Maybe she’s a tolerant cat but I’m still pretty sure anyone can leash train a cat if they start them young.
We started by buying a harness. We spent about $30 on a nice padded harness from one of those fancier pet stores, this one on Magazine Street in New Orleans. It was intended for small dogs but after just one return we had the right size and she was on her way to being an indoor outdoor cat while we travel.
We started by putting the harness on her while inside the house for a few minutes a day, with treat reinforcement. Her first real test was when we took her to the vet for an ear infection and didn’t have a carrier yet. We still had the brougham as our main transportation and she wasn’t accustom to the traveling part yet, so she stayed in the bathroom for the drive. When we got to the vet, there was a man with a weed whacker outside making a ton of noise and I knew the only way to get her inside the building was if he stopped. He was willing to wait for our mad dash to the door (where she still scratched the crap out of me) but we made it inside alive.
She was immediately cooperative. Aside from trying to crawl all over and behind the bags of dog food (not out of fear, out of curiosity), she sat in the chair next to me or on the floor patiently, and because she was so used to Chena, when dogs came in or left she just watched them curiously, and luckily none of them cared about her.
She didn’t walk to the vet room when it was time but the fact that a cat can wear a harness and leash and not freak out and do wacky back flips to get out, is a feat in itself.
Ever since, she’s been a regular outdoor adventurer, as you may have noticed from previous blogs and videos. We spent most of the summer with her tied out while we work outside, keeping an eye on her at all times in case she harassed some dangerous bug, lays in a fire ant pile or gets scared by a passing car, but she’s now at a point where she is tied outside alone with the door open about a foot. I still check on her every 5-10 minutes or whenever I hear a noise, in case she gets tangled and can’t come inside or to comfort her when a car drives by. After all she is basically a country cat with no socialization with other people, I’m sure one day she’ll live in an apartment or house in a city somewhere but as it in, strangers and cars make her nervous. She is not at all nervous around the house which assures me she’ll adapt just fine to any busier life she suddenly may have.

I don’t think theres a good chance of most cats being lead-able, even if they can accept the harness without incident. Cats are stubborn and paranoid animals and Susa still doesn’t like to be pulled on. She won’t freak out or anything but she’ll only move if she wants to. We go for regular walks when we stay in state parks and you can entice her to go a direction by giving her a slight tug. Unless she’s really set on going somewhere specific, she’ll do a little jog in that direction. When it’s time to come back, there’s a half ‘carry her’, half ‘tug in the direction of home’ game that usually works, although in her own time. She won’t be walking down any city sidewalks or anything and I hope no one expects their cat to either.

Today I let her go a little further to the river side where she found a pile of dried leaves. She rolled around and dug her face in them for a good half hour.
This is why I won’t have a strictly indoor cat. Safety aside, its their happiness that matters, even if it means they die 5 years before their time. People might live longer too if we were kept inside a bubble and fed nutritional gruel, but we would be much happier if we could smell the breeze and feel the sun (through a window doesn’t count).

Susa in the Leaves

Susa in the leaves

Susa in the leaves

Hatching Cute

Published on December 16, 2010 by Katya in the category Environment, pets and travel | Leave a comment

We left Miami on Sunday and on Saturday evening after returning from the Keys, I took Susa for a walk and poked around in the underbrush as I often do. While Susa sat on a rock and watched birds, I turned over rocks in hopes that I would see another creature like the rare yellow banded black snake we saw the day before, a tiny little 6 inch snake under our plastic gas tank. On the second rock I turned over, a strange bored out coral looking rock, I found a tiny white egg. At first I considered it might be some kind of spider egg sack but it wasn’t stuck to anything so my first tom-boyish reaction was to pick it up and take it home to see if I can hatch it. I figured a rock outside in the cold has as much chance as a rock in my terrarium inside the trailer. My plan was to release it of course, since I would have no chance of feeding it, but the temptation of seeing what it was was too strong.
Since it was winter, I had no idea if it was fertilized, going to hatch soon or in weeks or never so I just hoped.
The next morning I looked in the terrarium, seeing one of my flowers had died, when a little streak of darkness shot across the moss. It was a little tiny brown anole! The most common lizards around but still cute as hell. Of all the years I’ve owned reptiles and amphibians, I’ve never had an egg hatch so I was pretty excited.
Luckily he hatched on a warm day so I put him on some grass in the sun next to the rock where I found his egg and wished him luck.
Anole in Terrarium

Anole in Miami

Susa and Chena’s Morning Walk

Published on May 7, 2010 by Katya in the category pets and travel | Leave a comment

Susa and Chena being weird

Susa has been doing really well on the leash. I had put the harness on her a couple times in the house before finally jumping into the leash on her first visit to the vet. She was really good besides destroying my shirt at the sight of people, cars and especially a weed whacker. She sat in the waiting room and watched the other animals go by, not even flinching when a huge hyper dog went by. We don’t have a cat carrier but who needs them anyway when you have a leash cat! I’ve always wanted a cat that would walk on a leash. Shes got the leash part down, and she doesn’t struggle with it or freak out at all.. but the walking has actually yet to be seen.

Chena is as always adorable and unconventional. I got her into the habit of climbing on tables and walking on concrete walls in Argentina during walks at the park. Though once she went to jump onto a wall, unleashed, that had a 12 foot drop onto concrete on the other side. Now I make sure to keep a close eye. I guess I got into the habit of wanting dogs comfortable with height having had a wolf hybrid as a kid that would climb trees and a boston terrier as a teen who would walk up and over cars while we walked and balance on my wood fence. Plus I’ve always wanted to be in the circus (my own of course) so strange animals is kind of my thing.

New Nerd on the Road – Susa Ataris

Published on April 18, 2010 by Katya in the category pets and travel | 1 Comment
Susa Ataris

Susa Ataris

Beware. by the end of this you”ll know more than you need to about our new cat.

Once we got a bigger place to hang out, we were finally able to have a cat in our lives again. I think we had the new trailer for a day when I started looking on craigslist for needy cats and within a week, on a routine dog food stop at Pet Smart, we walked in just as they were closing the adoption counter. There were tons of cute cats, mostly adults or sister brother pairs, and one young orange cat. I often say stupid things for no reason so I saw the orange cat and said “I don’t like orange cats, they’re terrors.” What my mind had used to come to that conclusion was that every orange cat I’d ever known was a horrible half wild tom cat (and maybe I’m a bit of a ginger-cat generalist). Since 80% of orange cats are males, because orange is basically the calico of male cats, I assumed the orange cat, although the prettiest one, was a male. I read the card above the cage anyway, and it was a girl! I immediately and illogically changed my mind about her and decided to make a connection. I put my hand to the glass and she put her paw to the glass and it was done. There were several other females that were pretty but I was happy with a young cat, not a kitten, and one not too set in their ways already. All the cats were from the New Orleans Animal Control and had either been dropped off or caught feral, they didn’t have any clue which one she was.

We did all the paperwork and took her to the RV parked out front in a little cardboard cat carrier. She was surprisingly calm, didnt meow, didnt scratch, just quietly worried and hoped for the best. We went back inside to buy some things for her, and $150 later (egads) she was the most spoiled cat in the trailer park. I took her out once during the drive back home to give her some water, she just walked around the RV curios and sniffing everything, then mostly quietly went back into her box (except for the part where her water spilled and she got all wet - didn’t like that).

When we got back to the trailer without any issues or noise. When I opened her box, Chena -lover of all things box, was right over top waiting for the surprise. I knew it might not be the best idea to introduce them that way but I had high hopes. They would have to be best friends eventually, it’s a condition my pets have to endure (within reason). As I’d hoped, the cat didn’t even look at Chena, almost looked right through her while curiously looking around the trailer.  After that she made herself right at home. Never once hid or peed on anything, didn’t meow uncontrollably, hiss at us or try to escape. Just laid out in the open or played with her new toys.  She spent one night in the bathroom just in case her litter box skills werent perfect and after that shes been with us almost every minute of every day. I even gave her a bath on the second day because she smelled like kennel and pee and she was fairly decent about that, didn’t scratch, just a little worried.

Susa And Chena

Susa And Chena

As far as her personality, shes very trusting and affectionate but sometimes she would duck from us when she got in trouble, like she thinks we’re going to whack her one, but shes getting used to the idea that we wont be doing that. She has the “I want to trust you so badly and love you unconditionally but some bastard kicked me” syndrome. She came to us with 2 shaved areas. Her belly from being spayed and the side of her back leg. We considered at first, that although strange, maybe it had to do with the spaying but upon closer inspection the hair was longer (more grown out) and there was a 1 inch scar. She may have got cut on a fence, beat up by a raccoon.. who knows. Shes also pretty scared of loud noises, as is Chena but for different reasons. The first time she got scared was by a storage chest closing loudly, she ran from me for several minutes. It was painful that she was so afraid of me but after hours of apology and showing her that what she was scared of wasn’t so bad, shes started to understand. Now when she gets scared she looks at you intently and wide eyed to make sure you give her a sign that you didn’t mean it to scare or hurt her. You have to walk up to her and pet her or pick her up and apologize – If you don’t, she’ll run off and be scared and overall lose trust. Sensitive little kittehs!

It took us a while to name her. We went though all the cliche names for orange cats, and cats in general ans since she nibbled your hand, nose or face while she’s being brushed, we considered Nibbler (from futurama) but decided on a completely different little black monster, Susa Ataris from My Neighbor Totoro. They are soot sprites that hide in the shadows and are said to be good luck – there’s no real connection between them and her personality but it sounded like a cute name and we were sick of having nothing to call her. Within a day she was coming to Susa and it was set.

She’s super curious, what cat isn’t though right. Every time you’re doing something at the counter shes up on hinds mewing at you to know what’s going on. We encourage her curiosity by showing her every single thing she wants to see. Whether its a running tap, sink full of soapy water or jalapeños. After the first 2 times of climbing up my legs, she figured out she could get picked up if she just taps them with her paws. I find that the more you show cats willingly, rather than making things and places forbidden, the sooner they get over it. She walked all over my camera equipment and art supplies twice (on the top bunks), getting hair on everything, then never cared to hang out up there again (save the random kitty freakout and run around the trailer session).

Although I got her the cutest little princess bed, she lays on the hard floor and wont even go into the bedroom except sometimes when we’re sleeping. Good for me because I prefer my clothes stay somewhat hair free before I put them on. When I work she often sits on the breakfast tray beside me and lays her head on my arm. Making it hard for me to type but too adorable to resist. She also likes Jalapeno chips so any time we snack on them she gets her own little crushed chip to snack on.

Susa at work

Susa at work

Susa says hi to Ross

Susa says hi to Ross

All in all I think we’re pretty lucky people and got the best cat we could have possibly found.

She’s undergoing lessons in fetchology, climbing the walls control (claw control), lick the doggys face and ears and most exciting of all, harness training! Shes going to be even more awesome than she already is!

Austin Texas, Week 1

Published on January 13, 2010 by Katya in the category out and about, pets and travel | Leave a comment

We arrived in Austin Sunday night after a pretty interesting adventure with our tail lights. They had been out the last week or so and we finally decided that driving around at night with either emergency flashers or (this is the best) an electric candle and bicycle tail light in the back window (yes, as tail lights) wasn’t going to work for a city to city trip the way it did for the movie theater or grocery store. Before dark Sunday afternoon, after an adventure with a car wash couldn’t fit into, we hung out a Pep Boys with the sole intention of leaving with tail lights no matter how. We picked out some round LED ones intended for a trailer and proceeded to wire the lights to the exposed wires of a removed indoor lamp next to the back window. After testing the connection and picking out wire, we spent the next hour trying to figure out why only 2 lights came on – of the 40 or so LED’s inside each new tail light. Ross took the lights back inside where they tested fine and it became clear that our electrical problem wasn’t only with our tail lights – but several items at the back of the RV. The problem was not only most likely responsible for the tail lights not working but the faulty light and the water pump we struggled with so long. Luckily there are 2 lamps at the back of the RV so we just disconnected the other, wired it up, taped our new tail lights to the rear window with duct tape and on to Austin we went!

We found a spot at Pecan Grove RV park. Apparently the “hip” RV park in Austin – I guess because it’s within walking distance of downtown, bars coffee shops and movie theaters, basically a really nice change. So far it doesn’t look “hip” at all. Several middle aged men and women living in trailers – long term residents – drinking beer at 11am and abusing the already unsightly bathroom. There is no water pressure in the shower and no picnic table outside (as if it’s going to be warm enough to work outside soon anyway) but the neighbourhood is cool. There’s several restaurants, coffee shops and bars within a block. The park is $195 a week – and they have no website and dont answer their phone so this may be the only way for anyone to find out their weekly rates. When we arrived they only had 2 spots open so we got pretty lucky I think.

In other news, this is the 4th week that Chena has been sick. It started in Fredericksburg with swollen lymph nodes where the local 20 year old cowboy vet prescribed her 10 days of amoxicillin. She was on these until San Antonio where her right lymph node was even larger after we ran out of pills. We took her to yet another vet who almost immediately suggested cancer. Not exactly the first diagnosis I was hoping for but we agreed to a biopsy and $500 and 4 hours later, she was returned to us with stitches in her neck, dopey from sedation and completely uninterested in everything and everyone until the next day (Chena donation button ton the right hint hint :) .

After a week of stressing out about the results, her lump started to go away and I started to get more annoyed that the doctor had just jumped on the cancer band-wagon before trying anything else. He called Friday to tell us she didn’t have cancer but thinks it might be something fungal. It was hard to sit on the phone and be happy it wasn’t cancer while at the same time being offered a remedy I should have been offered first. We left for Austin without the pills but picked them up in Downtown Austin Tuesday morning. We were also out looking for a new dity water inlet which we didn’t find. The good ending to the story is that we did get a good parking spot downtown and right across from some nice graffiti.


I’m hoping to be able to walk more places with some good graffiti. Portland was always so deprived of it.

Of all the places we’ve stopped since Santa Ana,  Austin is the first place where we actually know someone. Ross’s long time friend Olivia took us out last night to dinner at Titaya’s Thai, a pretty good restaurant with a really squeaky waitress. After we went to her house to pick up some mail, one of which was a film swap from Kuwait and another my Christmas package from my mom. She sent me homemade fudge, probably the best you’ll ever never have, a leopard bathrobe which I’ve decided is my new snuggy, a couple movies, purse, wallet and some stone jewelry. Ross got a card from his mom in England and his rest deposit from the apartment in Portland.

After an exciting visit with Olivia’s dog Rain and package opening, we went to a couple bars. First was Rio Rita’s, a hipster bar completely full of amazing old Victorian couches and chairs – and a stoned lady with a baby in a sling (at 11pm – whats with the kids in inappropriate places Texas?). Rio Rita’s had some pretty great looking fruit infused vodkas but I stuck to whiskey cokes all night, except for the one rum and coke – the first time I’ve had a few drinks in months.

The second bar, Longbranch, was about as hipster filled as the first with some really funny art on the walls – paintings made with children’s lion masks and a deers head painted in multicolored spots with a fake flower crown. Men with v-neck shirts and their nasty hairy chests and handlebar stashes riddled the bar stools. When we walked in there was no music, about the lamest thing you can walk in on in a bar, so Olivia played some Van Halen and I played Alice Cooper.

Plans for the week include dinner with Olivia and her roommate and watching Forrest Gump at the Alamo Theater with stand up comedians making gags at the movie throughout.

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