Cats and dogs

Eduardo our cat is a country creature. Born on the outskirts of Crevillente he presumably miaows in both Valenciano and Castillian. He's not been lucky though. We picked him up in July 2005 aged about three months so he's just over 8 years old now. During that time he's spent a year in a flat in Ciudad Rodrigo and four years in two different flats in Cartagena. Now he lives, with me, in the flat el Garbanzal in La Unión.

Eddie doesn't like to travel. He wails and screams inside his carrying cage in the car. Usually he has a problem in controlling his bowels and bladder. Journeys in a car with Ed are unpleasant and uncomfortable for him and for the other occupants of the car. We've been fortunate. Friends and neighbours have taken pity on him and agreed to feed him at the house in Culebrón. He has the advantage of liberty and accommodation but he lacks human company. When he's in a flat his liberty is severely curtailed but he has the advantage of company and he can watch the telly.

Eduardo is a big factor in my life in La Unión. He consistently pesters me for food. He moves around the house occasionally deciding to sharpen his claws on something inappropriate that has me scurrying to stop him. Fortunately he is also a big fan of sleeping and he does that for hours on end. Nonetheless I feel for his lack of liberty. It's not that he has it bad in the flat but he doesn't have that freedom to come and go as he pleases as he does in Culebrón.

So I decided to take him outside. At first I used a lead. Now this would be a little unusual in the UK but in Spain where cats are generally either kept in all the time or left to their own devices it is decidedly odd. Spaniards seeing me with a cat on a lead noticed it. They noticed me. They looked at me strangely.

Eduardo knows which side his bread is buttered. He may like a bit of liberty but he likes those pouches of food too. He knows his credit is no good at Mercadona. He has to rely on me. So, after a few walks on the lead I took him out untethered a few times. He didn't exactly walk to heel but trotted a few paces, sniffed something, moved on, sniffed a bit more. He kept close. He kept near to the flat.

It was a bad precedent. Every evening when I came home after our first free walk he was out of the flat door as soon as I unlocked it. He waited for me in the hallway. I didn't want a walk. I wanted a cup of tea and something to eat, maybe a while in front of the TV.

I considered the feral cats that we had seen together. I considered the twenty minute stand offs between Eduardo and those same street cats with me posed strategically ready to interrupt any sudden advances on either part. I considered the tens of dog walkers who obey the rules and keep their dogs on a lead right to the point where they release them on the open ground behind our flat hoping that they will do there what their owners are keen not for them to do in their homes. I considered the occasional car or van that passes at 11pm at night along the quiet urban streets and I decided that I was going to let him go out alone for an hour or so each night.

We've done it once. It seemed to work fine but I was edgy as I drank my after work tea. Maggie says she'll blame me if anything goes wrong and so will I.