Probably not; they aren’t naturally pack animals the way wolves are
Yeah it’s not such a natural behavior for them to hang out in packs. They like to wander alone. Extremely individualistic animal. You don’t own a cat, they tolerate your presence in their home…
Although I did stumble on some kind of large cat group meet in an alleyway on a night walk, a couple of years ago. Having ~20 cats sitting in a circle staring at you in the dark is strangely intimidating…
The cats in my neighbourhood tolerate all other humans and cats to live in their territory, oddly those others are mainly in some big, closed things they call houses. Luckily there’s always a hole for the cats to get in and out.
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Have you ever heard the phrase “like trying to herd cats”?
I’m listening…
[Lol I’m being intentionally obtuse; but ya. Maybe this is more of a wish fullfillment type deal we have on our paws here]
It is possible to an extent with certain breeds, e.g. Egyptian Mau. However, they are curious and skittish so may not follow you everywhere if they find something interesting or get spooked. When you get too far from their known “territory” they may stop and wait for you to come back, (while also yelling at you to come back to the concern of passers-by!).
I used to go for walks with my gf and her egyptian maus. They would follow along like a pride of tiny lions but spread out a bit, so while we walked on paths their parallel routes would go through gardens, over roofs, fields, fences, etc.
In fact it was more of an effort to train them not to follow us everywhere, e.g. to the shops, work, etc. They would often follow neighbours’ children to school and back (and sometimes follow the wrong child home and get lost!).
Maus are also more amenable to being on a leash than most breeds, although you need to get them used to it early in life.
The main problem is if they decide to run away from something they are blazingly fast and near impossible to catch and recover from whatever inaccessible perch or hidey-hole they run to. My gf’s cats had been trained to return to the sound of jangling keys, but that only worked most of the time.
Im super amused that Egyptian Maus has the German word for mouse in the name. It might be interesting to see if one’s amenable to catpacking but I feel like the traumatic bustling of traffic/cars are an inescapable contraindication for them
It’s Mau in the singular, Maus in the plural (in English anyway), but maybe there are still some amusingly ambiguous sentences possible in German! :)
I wouldn’t recommend walking cats anywhere near any significant traffic. Maybe some cats would be OK with being in a pack (I’ve seen YT channels with cats in baskets on bikes etc) but I imagine you’d have to train them from a young age.
Junskitchen does that regularly, I’m still amazed at how well behaved his cats are.
Ime, no, but you can get them to follow you around the house while conspicuously pretending they’re not (they’ll just perpetually be about 3-6 feet away at all times when you’re lingering in any one area).
Basically you keep treats on you whenever you’re wearing something with pockets (I recommend a container that seals in case you wash it) and give them one every 15-30 minutes or so throughout the day, then steadily lessen over time, but never such that you’re giving them none. If they start pulling away start giving a little more for a little bit and give time for the behavior to solidify before lessening again. Eventually you’ll hit a plateau where you really just can’t give treats less often or they’ll give up.
Auf nature/trailz
Actually, our cats often join us when walking our dogs. We have two dogs, and when we walk them leashed, at night, one to three of our (six) cats come along and walk around us. They dart out in advance up to ten meters, using available cover (cars) to hide, and often laag behind in those places to ensure it is clear that they are not being walked but are simply following the same route of their own accord.
Not sure how this happened, so I can’t help you with training advice. But maybe it’s just our regular schedule of walking that does it?
It’s going to be next to impossible, but if you do try, I suggest attempting it with above average smart breeds that like to follow you around, such as burmese
Cornish Rex might also be a good choice. They are pretty much dog software running on cat hardware.
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