Cat Agility

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| Print | By | September 10, 2008 10:05 AM

I wish that Cat Agility had been around when Seren first showed up. She’d have been a star! Now at age 10+ she’s a bit too set in her ways to want to perform for an audience. But she still out-maneuvers the dog in every way that matters to a cat. And she does her own form of “cat agility” around the house. Your cats can do this, too.

Dog agility has been around for many years, and was patterned after some of the horse competition events. Cats do agility every bit as well. They’re experts at navigating “balance beam” type rails, can leap tall building-blocks in a single bound, faster than a loco-motion human, claw their way up the sides of furniture, shimmy through tunnels of boxes--heck, cats were MADE for this sport!

9-10 ICAT Agility copy.JPG

And it is, indeed, a sport. International Cat Agility Tournaments (ICAT) created a new category of cat competition in which cats negotiate an obstacle course designed to display their speed, coordination, beauty of movement, physical conditioning, intelligence, training, and the quality and depth of their relationship with their owner, who trains with them and guides them through the course. Since its inception, cat clubs around the country and the world have begun hosting events. It’s win-win for the cats and their people!

9-10 ICAT agility RestTime by Arnold Farley copy.JPG

In today’s world, house cats often turn into couch potatoes and only move from the sofa to the food bowl and back again. Agility can help keep them fit and trim, and the interaction as you train and play together is priceless. It forms the cement that holds your loving bond together.

I’ve borrowed a couple of picture examples from the ICAT website (http://catagility.com/index.html) and encourage you to visit and take a look at the opportunity. Membership in ICAT is free, and competition is open to cats of all sizes and breeds.

9-10 ICAT logo.JPG