It's spring here in the southern hemisphere, well almost.  The cats
consider it to be spring and are in full shedding mode - fur
everywhere!

Spring means a resumption of limited, supervised outdoor activity for
Spock and Persephone.  Both are somewhat leash and harness trained and
Spock, at least, has figured out that when I pick up his red harness
it means that he's about to go outside, so he jumps up onto the chair
near the door and stands still (apart from his purring) while I put
his harness on.  He then sproings to the door (a la Pepe le Pew) with
his tail up and whiskers forward.  He's excellent to go walking with.
He's figured out the mechanics of dragging a human at the end of a
string and he doesn't get freaked out that he's being followed.  He
will also allow himself to be directed with gentle tugs on the leash.
Walking with Spock consists of a random series of short explorations
interspersed with grass-munching and sand-bathing.  He's even figured
out how to roll about in the dust without entangling himself in leash.
He comes back to the human-on-string regularly to smoooch against
their leg and to walk on their feet (to prove that he's in charge).
If the human has the temerity to pick him up and cuddle him, he will
sit for a moment and purr, before asking (demanding) to be let down
again.  If we go near trees he will size them up before running up
them to the limit of the leash.  Fortunately, he's as good at coming
down as going up. Spock is very purposeful and businesslike when
outside; he has a mission (and one of these days he'll tell us what it
is!)

Persephone is a different experience altogether.  Persephone doesn't
so much "figure things out" as tries random experiments until it stops
hurting.  Her first reaction to most new or unfamiliar things is to
panic and, for her, the sun coming up each day is a new thing! She
ain't the brightest Christmas ornament on the tree.  Persephone has
never quite got the hang of the leash and harness.  She will walk
quite happily with the harness on, but forgets about the
human-on-string and gets a fright when she finds one of us following
her about.  She also does not cope with being directed whilst on the
leash and panics a little when she feels a gentle tug on the harness.
Fortunately, she is not really interested in exploring whilst outside,
so we can, if we're careful, let her out off-leash, as long as one of
us is there all the time to keep a close eye on her to make sure she
doesn't do anything stupid and to also make sure the local wildlife
(birds and small lizards) is safe. Persephone, as with most of her
activities, keeps up a running commentary whilst outside.  Every run,
sniff, roll, or jump is accompanied by a variety of trills, mrrrps,
ufffs, meows, quacks and a constant rumbly purr.  She likes to have a
human close at hand, so keeping an eye on her is not difficult.  It is
while she is outside that we are reminded how, um, fluffy she has
become because unlike Spock, who is a long and lithe personification
of elegance, Persephone is kinda mis-matched and cannot roll over in
the dirt without getting a bit of a run-up.  There is an obstruction
in the form of her round-ish belly that prevents a graceful turning
over in the dirt and forces her to resort to a most un-graceful
scrabble.  Of course, we are definitely *not* allowed to laugh at her
on these occasions.

Tish