Clifford Brooks - The Zen of Cat Walking: Leash Train Your Cat and Unleash Your Mind

Copyright 2018 by Clifford Brooks

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Brooks, Clifford, 1959- author.

Title: The zen of cat walking : leash train your cat and unleash your mind / Clifford Brooks.

Description: New York, New York : Skyhorse Publishing, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017046002 (print) | LCCN 2017058932 (ebook) | ISBN 9781510726307 (E-book) | ISBN 9781510726291 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781510726307 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: CatsTraining.

Classification: LCC SF446.6 (ebook) | LCC SF446.6 .B765 2018 (print) | DDC 636.8/0835dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017046002

Cover design by Mona Lin

Cover illustration by Stephanie Medeiros

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-5107-2629-1

eBook ISBN: 978-1-5107-2630-7

Printed in China

D EDICATION

To Greg Brandenburgh. Thank you for providing a strong and loving push along the path to enlightenment.

I love you like a dead relative.

S PECIAL T HANKS

To the many cats who showed me that ones worth is the sum of ones deeds, and to the cat walkers who shared their remarkable stories with me. We are one big family.

T ABLE OF C ONTENTS

MEDITATIONS

I NTRODUCTION

I have lived with several Zen mastersall of them cats.

Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

Common wisdom insists that cats are not dogs and shouldnt be asked to walk on a leash. If youre foolish enough to attempt it, well-meaning friends and family members may try to set you straight. Theyll tell you that cats are too independent and dignified to walk on a leash. Some of them will shake their heads and laugh. Others will share stories of their own feline failures. Most of them will wonder why you would even try such a thing.

But no one knows your cat like you do. If youre like me, you see your cat sitting in the window, separated from the natural world by a thin pane of glass, and you feel a pang of regret. You know he longs to be a part of that world, to feel the wind and the sun on his coat, to stalk birds and squirrels, to eat grass, and to become a participant instead of just an observer. And you think, maybe, just maybe, you have one of those rare cats who dont bow to common wisdom, a cat who has never been told he cant walk on a leash.

The odds arent good, but then you look over at your cat and hes still in the window, laser-focused and chattering away at a blue jay in the yard, and you decide right then and there that youll never know if your cat is that rare individual unless you try.

The last hurdle may be your self-esteem. Because cat walking is still on the societal fringe, you may fear how your efforts will be judged by your neighbors. If successful, you may be branded the crazy cat person in the neighborhood. Of course, theres also the possibility that your cat wont take to the leash, and youll fail. Then, the neighbors may decide youre not the crazy cat person, youre just plain crazy.

And thats where it ends for many. Fortunately, there are a number of people who decide that making this happen is more important than what the neighbors might think. Still, theres a lot of baggage to unpack before going out and buying a harness and leash for your cat. But even then, as you pass the extensive row of dog-walking paraphernalia to find only one or two options for cats, doubt rears its ugly head again. So, its no wonder that so many people give up when their cat doesnt immediately accept the harness. After being buckled in, many cats refuse to budge, or worse, they have a violent reaction and begin jumping and flipping about like a fish out of water. A portion of the remaining potential walkers stop right there, before even setting foot outdoors.

This leaves a small group of dedicated people; the lucky ones whose cat accepts the harness outright and those who realize that this is a really big deal for their cat and decide to give their cat the time he needs to adjust. This book was written for those people. If youre willing to invest in your cat, you could end up proudly wearing the crazy cat person mantle and significantly enriching your cats life in the process.

This book also serves as a Zen meditation primer. The idea came to me after Id titled the book. Initially, the connection to Zen was limited. My original intent was to simply emphasize the fact that to be successful at cat walking, you would need to exercise patience, calm, and perspective. In my own life, these qualities were greatly enhanced by my exploration and practice of Zen and other forms of meditation.

Meditation is both the easiest and the hardest thing Ive ever done. Learning what to do is deceptively simple, as theres very little to it. Its sitting and breathing, or sitting and reciting a mantra, or, in the case of guided meditation, its about refocusing your mind on the images and sounds that the guide provides. While each form of meditation differs in the fine details and underlying philosophy, they all rely on quieting and deactivating the random thoughts by redirecting your attention elsewhere. Once youve reduced the mental chaos to a manageable level, you can dive down beneath it to a calm place that enables introspection and leads to enlightenment.

Conceptually easy, but when you sit down to meditate, things get difficult fast. I found keeping focused on my breath or maintaining a mantra the most difficult thing Ive ever attempted. The thoughts return unbidden and its often difficult to realize the focus shift has occurred until youve gone on for breathless minutes. Its no wonder its so difficult; your mind has been in control all your life, so relinquishing some of that control doesnt come easily. It requires practice. The more you practice, the better you will get, but I cant stress this enough: this is not about the destination, there is no endpoint, and the success will feel very uneven in the early stages.

The benefits of meditation are well-documented and numerous. Inner calm and reduced stress have numerous health benefits. Your relationships will benefit as you gain the ability to see things more clearly and less emotionally. And you may experience changes, personal changes, that you never expected.