October 15, 2008

About a mile away from my place is a ghost town called Helena. There are several abandoned, dilapidated buildings. One day while walking along the road with my dogs, I saw a cat in one of the buildings. It appeared to be a purebred Siamese, until I saw its feet, which were white, so it is some kind of mix. I thought that if I put out dry food for this cat, and another black cat I saw with this Siamese mix, I figured I could create my own on going training ground for Dino to search for cats.

I went to the area to practice on a general area search for cats. I put Dino’s harness on him with his long line, his bag of treats and a clicker. I told Dino “Find Felix” which is his cue to look for any cats. I walked over to one of the buildings, that appeared to be an old barn. Dino walked right up to the door, which was partially ajar. He was definitely smelling something, but was hesitant to walk in. I wasn’t sure why. I say “Find Felix” as I coaxed him to walk into the building. I think he was smelling either other things or a bunch of cats. Something made him cautious, which he is usually not with cats. There may have been other critters like snakes, skunks or possums he was picking up. He appeared very curious and remained cautious. He was smelling the different areas. I praised him, but didn’t click because I didn’t want him to loose his concentration. We walked out and checked the next building next door. We check both front and back, he was definitely interested. I couldn’t walk into the building because there was a bunch of glass in both doorways, plus the second floor didn’t seem stable enough to take a chance something could come down.

I went to an open field across from the buildings. I have seen these cats over there. I told Dino “Find Felix” and he put his head down and starting looking. He was following different trails. The trails went around the old fields where there were more old buildings. I told him “check” in several spots. I did click and treats in some of these spots. He was very eager to keep checking. We continued in these fields for about another half hour, and then we found an old road down to the Trinity River. We walked down there checking different spots.

I certainly want to come back to this spot and hide my cat in a carrier for Dino to find. I think that would be a lot of fun. The field are huge with a lot of great spots to hide Mercury. There are no people in these fields because they are roped off from the road.

I was pretty happy that Dino kept checking and searching and remained eager.