Obstacle or Opportunity?

Every day, Sylvia and I go outside for about 20-30 minutes to get some fresh air. To say we take a “walk” wouldn’t be quite accurate. It’s not like taking your dog out for exercise. She’ll trot along with great purpose until she gets where she wants and then settle down to watch her surroundings. This might be just a few yards between the row of bushes and the front of the building, to watch people walking along the sidewalk, and most days we eventually make our way around to the back of the building to watch people on their balconies, or walking along.

I always set an alarm on my clock, because we can’t judge the time we’ve been outside by the distance covered. On a nice day, I’ll do 30minutes, or even 35-40 if it’s a weekend and I have nowhere else to be. As it’s become colder, and especially on cold and rainy days, I’ll shorten the time.

As we are outside each and every day, often just after lunchtime, we have come to know the various dogs around the neighborhood who are often out for their walks around the same time. A cat is almost always of interest to a dog, and a cat on a leash is definitely something of a novelty. It presents either an obstacle or an opportunity.

I often feel like Opportunity and Obstacle are two sides of the same coin. There are many moments in life where how we look at something determines which it is. Now, I’m not one of those people who is incessantly upbeat and believes we must believe there is a purpose behind everything that happens in life. Some things are just shitty. No matter how you look at the pandemic this year, for example, the silver linings people have found all seem rather thin and tarnished when compared to the immense suffering that makes up this huge rain cloud of a year.

But, there are plenty of times when you can flip something over and turn it from bad to good, obstacle to opportunity. And every day, Sylvia and I are potentially one of those things when somebody walks by with their dog. We present two unique challenges compared to other cats wandering around. First, Sylvia is limited in her movements by the leash. This is part of why I have one of the retractable leashes – it lets her walk along under the balconies about 15ft from the sidewalk while I don’t look like I’m lurking under peoples’ windows. So she can’t retreat to the same degree as other cats. Secondly, I am at the other end of the leash. And even if she is crouched under a bush, my presence will draw the dogs attention, who may then notice a cat it may have otherwise missed.

Of course, there are some dogs who don’t pay her much mind, especially if she’s on the other side of some bushes and not easy to get to. Their owners can easily divert their attention and keep going. There’s one fluffy pale gold akita/akita mix who lives with two large tom cats. He is always enthusiastic when he sees Sylvia, but is happy to keep moving when urged to do so. There’s also a little brown French bull dog who is both the happiest and most chill dog I’ve ever seen. He’ll pause, and perhaps give a little snuffle (poor little squash nose!) but keep trotting on by… and he is always off leash on his walks. Sylvia knows him by now and doesn’t even flinch when she sees him coming. Ok… she flinched a little when one day we walked out the front door and almost directly into him. But even at less than a yard away, he didn’t do a thing.

There are a few dog owners for whom we’re an obstacle. Their dogs would love to go after Sylvia, and they don’t have the greatest control of their dogs. There’s a little brown and white terrier who otherwise is a lovely dog. But his owner shortens his leash with apprehension each time she spots us out together (it’s easy to see if I’m with Sylvia even if she can’t spot the leash – I’m carrying Sylvia’s backpack). There’s also a black and white fuzzy sheep dog of some sort – he’s not very nice. He once bit my husband while he was holder the door for the dog’s owner. And she always has a bit of an anxious look while she walks him, and takes a tight grip on his leash if she spots us. Sylvia is very sensibly afraid of him. None of these owners are upset to see me outside with a cat, but I know from the way that they try to move past us as quickly as possible, that it’s stressful for them when they see us, even if they are polite, or even friendly towards me.

My favorites are the owners training young dogs who see Sylvia and I as an opportunity – a chance to reinforce good behavior in their dogs. The first we got to know are a lovely rich brown boxer named Martha and her owners. The woman in particular clearly knows how to manage and train dogs. She’s always cheerful when she spots us, and while she shorts Martha’s lead, it’s with confidence. If Martha isn’t paying attention, or trying to go the wrong direction, she’ll go with the dog and then lead her gentle around to the direction she should be going, in such a way that there’s no fight, or struggle. Sylvia has learned to have confidence in the owner, and watches with alertness, but not fear, whenever they appear.

One of our neighbors recently acquired a cute little yellow lab puppy. At first, I thought we were going to be an obstacle, and he’s hurry on by each time he saw us, often scooping up his puppy as he did so. But overtime, as he’s been able to train his puppy more and more, he’s let the dog walk by. For a while, we always crossed paths while Sylvia was behind the bushes lining the front of our building, creating a nice natural barrier. But today, we were out back where Sylvia was physically distanced under the balconies, but completely exposed. They came walking towards us up the sidewalk, before the sidewalk turned to pass in front of us. He shortened the lead as they approached, but this time used our presence as a chance to reinforce good training.

Each time the puppy looked our way and barked, his owner would use a treat or his open palm to bring the puppies attention back to him, and they’d take a few more steps along the sidewalk. The puppy would be distracted by OH MY GOD CAT again, and his owner would repeat. So they slowly moved past us, a few steps at a time, until they had rounded the corner of the building. It was great to watch him work patiently, knowing that he realized we were also OK with this. Sylvia was wary, but not in pre-flight mode, and I like to think that my smiling face and relaxed posture, as well as my friendly “hello” when he approached helped as well.

Moments like these just make me really happy – I like getting to know, even in such a passing fashion, a little about my neighbors, and feeling like I added to their day in some way. I’d like to think he went home to his partner to tell her how well their puppy did dealing with a cat that afternoon.