Something is Following Us...

This week I have been walking every night. Last night our cat Butterscotch followed us for part of our walk. That was our longest walk yet, over two miles. He eventually chased after something and stopped following us. But for the short time he was behind us the kids thought it was wonderful. Later that evening after we were safely home he finally knocked at our door, yes my cats knock at our door when they want to go in or out, to come back inside. He was hot and climbed on the couch back to cool him off in front of our air conditioner.

Tonight my daughter picked the route we took. My son was crushed, he wanted to. We started off in her direction of choice and my son was in tears. He was inconsolable, not even knowing that tomorrow he could pick the route helped. Then all of a sudden a white blur ran past us and stopped. It was Butterscotch and he apparently wanted to accompany us again tonight. P's tears stopped and they were replaced with laughter. Pets are wonderful for children with asperger's (neurotypical children too of course). Our pats really help P with his social skills, especially when he is their caretaker. He no longer was upset that he couldn't pick the direction of the walk. He was in caretake mode and made sure that Butterscotch was safe, away from the street, while he followed us.

The four of us made it almost all the way around the big block and were back in territory we knew Butterscotch was familiar with. Of course that was when Butterscotch decided to go his own way. There is a book called "All Cats Have Aspergers" and I think that is a very good description of how their brains work. P seemed to understand that Butterscotch could find his way home from where we were. He and Butterscotch seem to understand each other. So we made it back to our house and there were no worries.

If I had to describe how I think cats walk around a neighborhood it would be like in "Family Circus" cartoons when Billy goes someplace. So I was expecting Butterscotch to wander home later in the evening after he had explored the neighborhood. The kids wanted to walk a bit longer so we decided to go around the inside block which we call the inner loop. There really are no typical rectangle blocks where we live. So off we went again. We enjoyed to cool night breeze and when we approacher the same section of the "big block" that Butterscotch went off on his own we were surprised to see him there waiting for us.

So as we completed our walk we were followed by our beloved pet. He trotted after us pausing every so often to explore. As soon as he realized that we were getting too far away from us he ran after us. Some of our neighbors thought it was so cute to see our cat staying with us on our walk. He was very warm when we got home. The poor boy was panting like a dog and I think he drank a whole bowl of water when he came inside. Once again he has parked himself on the back of our couch conveniently directly in front of the air conditioner and is asleep. If I didn't know better I would think he was a puppy.