They see me strollin'...

...yes, it's also been done by everyone else with a cat in a stroller. I still had to. HAD TO DO YOU HEAR ME. I WAS REQUIRED.

I'd been following the blog linked above -- which belongs to a purebred, leash-trained, stroller-ridin' Abyssinian named Pellburn Jacoby Stealin' Home and his person -- for a while, and thinking vaguely that a stroller might make sense for Loiosh, especially when he gets tired and doesn't want to walk, or it's hot, or...all kinds of things, really. Wasn't sure if he'd go for the idea, didn't see a way to find out short of buying one and hoping, put the idea on a back burner and figured I'd deal with it later.

We went into the local pet food place a week or so ago to buy more of Chocolate's special grain-free hypoallergenic food (the things I do for my cats, but he breaks out something awful otherwise) and right up front is a pair of pet strollers. So naturally I immediately stuck Loiosh in one of them.

He wasn't entirely sure at first -- I zipped it closed; otherwise he'd've jumped right back out -- but after I pushed him around the store for a while, he decided it was Just Fine. It especially helped when the store dog came over and Loiosh realized that hey, he was taller than the dog! And also was driving a tank!

So this was obviously something I was going to have to buy for him. Equally obviously it was going to have to wait a bit; the RV still comes first, and since pet strollers average around $120 new, that would've been a substantial chunk of change.

Until I saw one on Craigslist yesterday for $20, and promptly drove down to Center City to buy it.

The immediate reaction was...unexpected.

Loiosh did eventually climb in, but it took him a while, and Chocolate (my shy boy, Mr. Camping What Are You Serious, my grumpy old man cat) spent much more time in it than Loiosh did.

He is NOT okay with the stroller moving while he's in it, though, so taking Chocolate out for a stroll in the thing might be a long time coming.

Loiosh, on the other hand? Yeah, just like with anything else new. He loves it.

We went out for our first walk today.

He rode in it for a while, but then he got bored.

We walked for a bit. He had cranky ears for a while -- I think the sound of the stroller rolling along with us annoyed him -- but he got used to it.

It started raining, though, and he realized an important thing -- the stroller has a roof!

It was a short trip, but I think he's gonna wind up really liking the thing. It pushes pretty easily on pavement -- not so much in the (fairly tall) grass at the park, but in short grass on level-ish ground I think it'll do okay. It really increases our walking range (cats are built for speed, not endurance) and it'll make it much easier to take him out when it's warm and sunny and all he wants to do is lie in the shade.

I'm really hoping to get Chocolate used to it, too -- as it is, even though he's actually pretty okay about the leash these days, I can't take him out, because of his flea allergy. But if he's in the stroller and off the ground, he should be pretty safe from them. And once we're all living in the RV, there will be times I need to take Chocolate places along with me and Loiosh, if only because sometimes it'll just get too hot in the RV...