For the first year of my life I was an indoor cat.  I didn’t even really know what “outdoors” meant, other than it was the name given to “the place on the other side of the window”.  On one or two occasions before my first birthday I was able to sneak outside when a human opened the door (I’m very fast), but they always picked me up and brought me back inside immediately.  And scolded me.  I eventually got the idea- that outside was apparently for dogs, birds, squirrels, and humans.  But not Zeuss.

Everything changed suddenly about 10 months ago when, a day or two before my birthday, one of the humans bought me a present.  I’ve always been a fan of presents, because presents are always FUN!  Mice toys, cardboard boxes, bouncy balls, LASERS- I love them all.  But this present was different… it was blue, and had clips, and was called a walking jacket.

The walking jacket was, in my opinion at the time, the worst present ever.  I already knew how to walk without a jacket.  Not to mention that I’m a cat, and cats don’t wear jackets- humans do.  If they thought I was going to wear a jacket all the time… well, let’s just say that I wasn’t too enthused about the jacket.  I tried it on for them, and it fit well, but I pretended not to like it.  The pretending worked, and the humans took the jacket off.  All was well.

The very next day on my birthday, they put the jacket on me again.  This time they left it on me for a while, and I realized it wasn’t so bad.  I kept my cool, and wore the jacket around the house doing my normal Zeuss things.  That seemed to make the humans happy, so I in turn was happy to oblige. 

And then everything changed.  The humans told me that it was time to go outside. 

I’d heard what they said, but I didn’t really comprehend what was about to happen.  Within minutes they had attached a cord to my jacket (one of them held the other end of the cord in their hand) and opened up the back door.  I didn’t even have to think- I just ran out!  And the humans came with me.  The ground was cold with patches of white snow, which I had seen falling from the ceiling the day before.  It felt funny underneath my paws, much different than a rug, so I walked slowly and carefully on it.  The outside air was much colder than inside, but it was nice.  I was allowed to walk wherever I liked, and the humans followed behind.  We had fun.  I got to smell the trees for the first time, and the fence, and some cars… EVERYTHING that I saw I stopped to sniff.  It seemed like we stayed outside for hours, and I didn’t want it to end, but eventually we had to return indoors.  Reluctantly, I obliged, hoping that one day I’d be allowed to wear my jacket outside once again.  I didn’t have to wait very long…

Not many days have gone by since my first birthday that I haven’t gotten to wear my jacket.  I get to go outside almost every day, and multiple times on some days.  I’ve been out in both good weather and bad weather, although I much prefer warm days to cold, and cold days to wet.  (I think the humans feel the same way about weather…)  I’ve also been outside at night, when it’s dark and quiet. 

It’s so much fun being an outdoor cat.

‘Til next time…

-Zeuss