Would you like to come on an adventure with me?

This week I thought I’d share my outdoor adventures with you. I thought I’d show you how I go exploring new places. Last weekend as a special treat meowmy took me out on walkies as normal but then, part way through we took a different route. We went in through a different door and

Deep breaths in, analysing every scent around, finding those that are familiar, flowers, grass, mummy then smelling those less familiar, different human and animal scents, this time I could smell something else, too, it was vaguely familiar but I couldn’t quite place it but it didn’t smell dangerous so I carried on exploring.

Ears up, listening out for anything and everything. This is where it’s good to have giant bunny ears like me! This time it was quite breezy so the trees were swishing around so had to listen out really hard for any other noises in the background. I heard a strange squeaky noise, then a really strange forceful clunk-clunk, clunk-clunk sound in the background. Mummy told me this was a train and it’s what she gets on whenever she goes to work. It sounds kind of scary but if mummy takes it for a ride then it must be friendly. I can also hear the familiar noise of people talking and footsteps, I can tell they I don’t need to be nervous of them as their sounds are far away. This is something that I’m very good at, even if there is a scary noise I can tell if it’s close enough to be worried about or far enough away that I know I’m going to be safe. If in doubt then I either duck and cover as mummy calls it; that’s when I crouch down close to the ground with my head kind of twisted upwards to try to ‘see’ where the high up sounds are coming from or the other option if the noise is nearer the ground is head for the nearest tree and climb it!

Whiskers forward, ready to feel my way around, I can feel when even the very tips of my whiskers touch something, I can feel my way along walls, fences etc. Push them forward and I can feel what’s in front of me and most of the time, unless I’m running full speed, my super reflexes can tell me when I’m about to bump into something before I actually do.

I walk proud most of the time with my head held up high to be able to get the best angle to catch all the scents and sounds. I do subtle sweeping movements, head gently going up and down or side to side to pinpoint exactly where the sounds and smells are coming from. My ears moving independently of each other so I can hear all around me, even mummy walking along behind me. I know exactly where everything is.

I know that if I get nervous then mummy’s there with me and I can just go over to her and give her leg a reassuring rub or she’ll give me a little stroke and tell me how well I’m doing and what a good, brave girl I am. She chats to me quite a lot when we go on new walkies as she knows I find it comforting. We chat about all sorts of things and she might tell me a good direction to explore in. Sometimes I listen, sometimes I don’t and go my own way, I’m always allowed to lead the way with mummy following behind me. Exploring is always at my pace and my direction, mummy only stops me if either I’m going to bump into something (very rare) or I’m going somewhere I shouldn’t that might be dangerous or just out of bounds like someone’s garden!

As a blind cat I don’t use my senses on their own I use them all together, sound helping smell, helping touch it all works as one. All of these then help me build my memory map which I use to navigate around, just like mummy and daddy recognise familiar landmarks that they see, I do exactly the same but in my head. Joining up the senses made me remember what that familiar smell was that I had smelt earlier, it was from the big metal moving machines, I recognise their noise from when mummy and I go walkies along the other side from the gardens, they roar past and leave a funny smell behind, that’s what I could smell earlier. This time though I could tell they were much further away so nothing to be scared of.

Of course I found a tree to climb and enjoyed a new tree so much I climbed it twice! Things don’t always go to plan even for an expert climber like me, the big tree was just a little bit too round for me today after already climbing twice but next time I’ll give it another go – I never give up, I just try again another day. From up a tree I get a great vantage point to hear and smell further away. By climbing the tree it makes its position in my memory map firm, plus I have scented it with my paws as I climbed so now I know exactly where to go to if I want to get out of any trouble. Now it’s my tree 😺

I hope you enjoyed adventuring with me as much as I did.