u/DerAlbi

Random cute shots while testing camera settings.
Slightly longer version.

Just Moritz growling. Not sure if this is another dog or a cat. Its always the same exact spot. A few steps further and everything is back to normal :-D

But actually, that post is more like an excuse to ask another question:

We, every so often, have people on r/adventurecats who deal with very fearful cats, especially if they are new outside and were indoor for a long time. Reported symptoms range from 'panting' to 'shaking' and it is distressing for the humans too. These people have very little guidance as no one shares these non-happy circumstances.

I recently filmed an extreeemely stressful situation on a very loud street near a train-overpass (and the train passed twice!) where I had to deal with Moritz stress, sensory overload and the resulting overwhelming fear in a productive way including recovery from it. It would probably make a good educational video how much a random cat can handle, how to judge when it is enough, what signs of relaxation to look for and which strategies are there for the human in that situation etc.

However, I also know that displaying a cat in such distress will absolutely be punished by cat-reddit that will likely completely overwhelm any productive conversation in such a post.

I will therefore leave a preview scene here of the total escalation that happened when the second train passed. If that already leads to escalating comments, I wont bother with an educational voice-over for the whole situation, because cat-reddit just sucks sometimes.

>!"And people who put their cats in such situations suck too".!<
>!Yeah yeah, move on, please... !<

Felix is an absolute legend. With his spotty eyes, stiff hips and swinging primordial pouch, he has probably seen both world wars. He just owns the place. The whole town.

Ignore Moritz in the Background. He is an idiot.

Das war unsere Essensrunde in Langform!

Wir versuchen so oft es geht mit Moritz zum Essen nach draußen zu gehen. Ich habe auf dieser Runde wieder mit der Kamera gespielt (daher wechselt manchmal das Farbprofil) und es ist "unterhaltsam" genug geworden. Ob man sich die vollen 15min antun muss.. ist jedem selbst überlassen.

Ich bin leider seit 3 Wochen so krank. Das macht das Rausgehen mit Moritz nicht so leicht, weil unser lokaler Wald am Berg liegt und jede Runde mindestens ~200 Höhenmeter bedeutet. Um so blöder ist es wenn es dem dann noch zu warm ist, dass er weder essen noch gehen will.

Ist bloß kacke, wenn man krank ist und der Kater schreit.

Finally, this is the video of our vacation day #3. The last one. The weather was mediocre still (all 3 days were like this). We visited a very common tourist spot ("Grüner See") on our way home after packing things up in the hut. The main attraction, a melt-water lake, however was empty and dry. So we extended our round to include a small little canyon instead.
The whole day was kind of exhausting as I got sick (still am) and everything took a little more effort than expected.

The hike was 11km with 600m of elevation, it took 5h and our moving average (excl pauses) was 3.6km/h.

Moritz' behavior was very good in the early hours but he became overstimulated / irritated in the afternoon. The 3 days of hiking had a toll on him and he just got tired. He was neither happy walking nor sitting on my shoulder - like a small child needing sleep. In the car he just was finished with the world :-D

Luckily, we trained hard these winter-months and this was still a manageable situation for us. Overall his hiking behavior during this vacation was the best ever and all the training paid off imo. Our hiking speed drastically improved and I dont need to circle back for him as much while I provide more easily accessible safety for him.

Just as a summary for those who dont follow r/adventurecats: we changed the structure of our group. Previously Moritz would follow us with quite some distance (as last of the group). This worked best for him. But this lead to situations where we couldnt help him if he needed support, because we were out of reach for him. We trained hard this winter to get him to stay between us. So if he has a problem, the last person can pick him up - always. This change is way more complex than it sounds, because the steps behind him do stress him and it didnt come naturally for him to stay in front of anyone. The training was quite challenging and caught some outrage on here as I documented some of it. And this is also absolutely not comparable with typical leash-walks that most people do ("the cat walks you"). After all, we push him towards our hiking speed.

I have to say that after this vacation, Moritz' bond to us, me especially, (because I do all the interactions to push him along the path) did improve meaningfully. I dont think he cares too much about the hiking but he cherishes all the interaction, the problem solving en route, etc.
But now that I am still sick, unfortunately its all back to normal. I wish so much I would have a nomad life-style with him... Every single vacation, this is the frustrating conclusion.

1. I made a longer cut of that video, without text comments, here (7:05 long)
2. But if you enjoy silent-hiking type videos, i "recommend" this long-form version (24min). I published all the non-pov raw-material, uncut, for those who like to see the whole experience. It shows all of Moritz behavior and our interactions - how much he sniffs, when I interrupt him, how much he walks, etc.