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Alyssa1
02-06-2009, 14:48
has anyone ever brought a cat along on a hike? :D

bigmac_in
02-06-2009, 15:01
Yes, but God only knows why.

Cool AT Breeze
02-06-2009, 15:06
Ziggy.

Tinker
02-06-2009, 15:13
I believe Ziggy is the most famous of all AT cats. Google will fill you in.

MOWGLI
02-06-2009, 15:28
Jim Adams, aka "Geek" is a member here. Ziggy was his cat.

kanga
02-06-2009, 16:05
i used to have a black calico named pandora that went with me every so often. but at one point i had a squirrel, too.

Jack Tarlin
02-06-2009, 16:30
Geek famouisly brought Ziggy cat, and a few years back, HotDog brought his Manx, named Stumpy Cat. Sometimes Stumpy went a little ahead of his owner; sometimes he was behind, sometimes, he was right next to the guy; when I first met them he was happily riding ON the guy's backpack, the damndest thing I've ever seen on the Trail.

Great team, great kitty.

Anyways, a few folks have hiked large sections of the Trail with cats. As a cat person, tho, I'd have to say it's probably a bad idea, unless you really have a remarkable cat. Too many risks, mainly from badly trained/behaved hiker dogs, i.e. 95% of the ones you'll encounter on the Trail. Personally, I wouldn't risk it.

snowhoe
02-06-2009, 16:41
Goes great with ramin.

littlelaurel59
02-06-2009, 22:01
If you stayed in shelters you wouldn't have to carry food for the cat.

Wise Old Owl
02-08-2009, 11:52
I kid you not, Discovery had a show on yesterday and kitty is the favorite "chicken wing" of Cougars and Coyotes. In fact it's why one woman got attracted. You are more than welcome to bring a cat on the trail. I doubt it will be any trouble.

Rouen
02-08-2009, 13:16
I kid you not, Discovery had a show on yesterday and kitty is the favorite "chicken wing" of Cougars and Coyotes. In fact it's why one woman got attracted. You are more than welcome to bring a cat on the trail. I doubt it will be any trouble.

fishers and coyotes also have a specie place for kitties.
cats are also more likely to be destructive of the native wildlife than a dog.(mice are native)

warraghiyagey
02-08-2009, 13:23
I was gonna bring a beaver but I was afraid he'd chew on the shelters. . . dam it. . .

Lugnut
02-08-2009, 13:48
I was gonna bring a beaver but I was afraid he'd chew on the shelters. . . dam it. . .


Domestic or feral? :D

Doctari
02-08-2009, 17:08
One year I was out (2000?) "Hot Dawg" had with him "Stubby Cat". He said she walked about 20' of the AT, rode the rest of the way on his pack. :)

Just remember the saying: "Dogs have masters, Cats have staff!" & be prepared to carry your "employer" for most of the trip. :rolleyes:

Hot Dawg says Stubbs was a "terror in the shelters, towards the mice." Other hikers complained that when they got to a shelter the night after Stubbs was there, the mice were relentless in food stealing. :D

superman
02-08-2009, 17:23
Purple found a kitten on the road in Pearisburg. She carried it for quite a ways. Winter and I camped next to them. Winter didn't bother the kitten and the kitten didn't bother Winter. She gave the kitten to Stan and TJ when they had to leave the trail.
I don't mind cats...they taste like chicken but it's darn hard to get all the fur off of them.:)

warraghiyagey
02-08-2009, 17:37
Domestic or feral? :D
Both. . . the best of both worlds. . .:):)

Gaiter
02-08-2009, 18:37
not sure what any of the cats name's were: but i've heard of cats that ate the mice at the shelters, and i've heard of a cat that would have a row of dead mice presented to their owner in the morning.....
along w/ that, i get all these stories mixed up... a hiker that picked up a kitten in the south, but by the time they got up north the cat was eating so much that he had a 15+lbs. cat riding on his pack every day

Newb
02-09-2009, 10:44
I used to go on long hikes with my cat when I was a teenager. She always stayed within 20 feet of me..that was on Mt. Oglethorpe.

Jim Adams
02-10-2009, 01:11
Ziggy walked to Blood Mountain and then never took another step on the AT. He rode my pack the rest of the way. He also rode the back of my bicycle home from Maine to Pennsylvania. I've had people ask about Ziggy before but never thought about advice to others thinking of taking a cat...so here goes.

Jack is totally correct...it takes a special cat...yeah, I know, everybody has a special cat but the cat MUST be very different than your normal everyday cat.
I got Ziggy by accident from a farm in Manchester, Ohio and I doubt that he was more than 4 or 5 weeks old. He was VERY tiny. He grew up on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and learned to "rule" the campsite. He became fearless of water and would walk around the canoe on the gunnels and just leap out into the water anytime that he saw something that he wanted. I ended up putting him on a leash due to the radical currents in the Mississippi so that I could "reel" him back in when he jumped. He also would wade out into the river and catch minnows with his mouth to eat and carry them to shore and eat them there. (No, he was never hurting for real cat food)
Our camps were always surrounded by coyotes at night and although they were quiet and stealthy, us human rarely seeing them, Ziggy would sit by the fire and just scare out into the woods and follow "ghosts" thru the night.
I also had Ziggy neutered after the river section to keep from empregnating females and to keep him from wandering as much.
OK, so why all this river story? This is what made Ziggy compatible to thru hiking...he grew up as a traveling / camping cat.
#1, I don't know whether it really makes a difference but Ziggy was also a Manx (actually a Manx / tabby mix). I do't know whether that makes them a better cat for thru hiking but it seems that every other cat that I've heard about out there was also Manx. Seems as though that breed has the right "attitude" as Ziggy acted more like a dog most of the time.
#2, you have to carry cat food. I carried a pound of dry cat food in the pack and restocked in every town. I also gave Ziggy a can of moist cat food every day that I was in a town. You will still be shocked at the amount of mice that the cat will eat. I watched him kill and eat 11 mice at Blood Mountain Shelter before I went to sleep...he hunted most of the night.
#3, all this eating adds weight gain...Ziggy was about 2 pounds at Springer but 14 pounds at Baxter. (he was 19 pounds when I finally had to put him to sleep)
#4, all of the rules that apply to dogs also apply to your cat. The permit for the Smokies always stated under the regulations "no dogs". The Rangers heard about Ziggy before I arrived at Fontana and when I got there, all of the permits had dogs crossed out and the word "pets" stamped on it. Same at Baxter.
#5, cats will over heat if exposed to hot direct sun. Although it was bright and sunny for most of my trip through the Whites and Maine, the temps weren't bad but I had some difficult times keeping Ziggy cool enough on some of the more exposed areas during the summer.
6#, EVERYONE will slow you down to talk to you and want your picture. A cat can play havoc on schedules or plans...but it also gets you bonus while yogiing.
#7, almost anything that may present itself as a pet problem becomes magnified because most of the available answers or solutions along the trail are for dogs.
#8, if your cat actually grows up "correctly" to have the right attitude to thru hike, it can present unique problems of it's own with other pets (dogs). Ziggy ruled the roost and hated dogs...as a result, most dogs would perk up and get ready to "chase the cat" when they saw Ziggy. This all changed when Ziggy noticed them and took off on a dead run as fast as he could toward the dog. I had to go and rescue several dogs with their tail between their legs and bring them back to their owners after I secured Ziggy.
If anyone else feeds the cat "people"food, it usually makes the cat barf...unpleasant around camp...worse in your sleeping bag!
Now the good stuff.
You have NO mice in your food...EVER...EVER!!!
Almost everyone out there loved Ziggy and wanted to share the trail experience with him which rarely happens with dog owners.
Ziggy learned to crawl into my sleeping bag on cold nights and would sleep at my feet inside the bag. It is incredible having your own furnace!
Having a cat made my thru very dfferent than most hikers but he turned out to be the best friend of any pet that I've ever owned. My advice is to leave your cat home for a thru but take him "local" camping every chance that you get. I think that you will be amazed at how much your cat will like camping but I think that attempting a thru may lose your cat or worse.
I didn't intend to do my trip with a cat but simply had no choice...after paddling and living with him everyday for 5 months on the river...who would I have sent him home to?

geek

warraghiyagey
02-10-2009, 08:49
http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/im-n-ur-bowl-eatn-ur-ramen.jpg

Pedaling Fool
02-10-2009, 08:57
My cat is too fat and lazy. (http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/showimage.php?i=26105&original=1&c=member&imageuser=6936)

Jaybird
02-10-2009, 09:08
has anyone ever brought a cat along on a hike? :D


I remember a hiker in 2005 hiked with a CAT riding along on top of his backpack!

I've seen cats in shelters as well...(keeping the mice count down)

See ya'll out there in May (w/ "Jigsaw", "Model-T", & "DAKS")
Harpers Ferry NOBO to Swatara Gap,PA:D

warraghiyagey
02-10-2009, 09:13
My cat is too fat and lazy. (http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/showimage.php?i=26105&original=1&c=member&imageuser=6936)
Looks like he's not big in the humor department either. . . and if you tried pettin his belly you'd draw back a bloody stump. . .

sbank03
11-19-2009, 21:31
I think my cat Nathan could go hiking with me. He has the right personality-- but the wrong weight, considering that I would have to carry him a lot so he could keep up with his naps and be ready eat shelter mouses. Fifteen pounds he is.

veteran
11-21-2009, 09:46
Jim Adams & Ziggy


http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/files/2/9/0/7/Geek.jpg

ShelterLeopard
11-21-2009, 12:59
I have to say, that is so cool.

Erin
11-21-2009, 21:08
What a great story! I had head about Ziggy, but what fun to hear it from the source Jim Adams.

Marta
11-21-2009, 21:53
This past spring I ran into a NOBO in the Grayson Highlands who had found a kitten. I tried to talk him out of it, but he said he was going to take care of it while he was hiking.

I wonder how that worked out for him. Did anyone run into a guy with a kitten north of there?

Trailweaver
11-22-2009, 02:11
I did take my cat camping once, and she loved it. This was a special cat too, and I had no one to leave her with at the time, so we went. This cat was leash trained, however, and I would never have taken her otherwise, as the risk of her getting lost would have been too great. She stayed on the leash, and was in camp with me on that leash, taking walks from the camp occasionally. She slept in the tent with me.

I wouldn't recommend backpacking with a cat. . . as others have said, you will have to carry the cat eventually, and the risk is there for loss. Love the cat - leave the cat with someone responsible.

Tinker
11-22-2009, 09:10
has anyone ever brought a cat along on a hike? :D

Nah, you can usually find a few along the trail to help fill in the lack of protein in your diet. :D

blucollark9s
01-17-2010, 15:11
My kitty, she never walked on the AT, but loved taking walks with me in the woods just the same. I'll miss you Krause.

http://blucollark9s.smugmug.com/Chesapeake-Bay-Retriever/Hazel/Krause-Kitty-in-catnip-patch/766700444_JHub2-L.jpg