Gnocchi sits attentively on a Beverly Grove sidewalk with his owner, Julia Luke. Gnocchi wears a pink collar with his name on it, an air tag and a red harness with a leash. He observes the neighbors. He sniffs the grass. He watches bugs crawl in the dirt.
“People know Gnocchi’s name before they know mine,” Luke said.
But seeing Gnocchi stops strangers in their tracks.
That’s because Gnocchi isn’t a dog.
“It’s a cat on a leash!” an unfamiliar neighbor exclaimed recently, stooping to pet him.
While walking cats may seem like a novelty, more Angelenos do it than you think. We asked readers to tell us why they walk their cats, and within hours, roughly 160 people answered. Many said they want to give their pets a fully enriched life, fearing that indoor-only cats miss out on the outdoors experience. Rather than subject free-roaming outdoor cats to dangers like cars and coyotes, some opt for supervised harness and pram walking.
“ I know [Gnocchi is] happier when he has exposure to more sensory things than being inside all day long,” Luke said of her domestic shorthair. “I think about how happy I would be if my whole entire life was inside.”
In Highland Park, Hayden Freedman and her partner, Kyle Smithers, walk their cat, Zephyr, up and down their quiet street, usually once a week. Sometimes they bring their dog, Ivy, who treats the walk more as a cooldown than a workout. (She runs separately with Smithers.)
Over in Silver Lake, Allison Nill walks her cats around the local reservoir in a pet stroller. Safely tucked beneath the pram’s netted covering, Lana — short for Lana Del Rey, a tabby — takes in the sights while Steve, an orange American shorthair and Abyssinian mix named after Stevie Nicks, lounges in the shade.
“I call ’em our hot girl walks,” Nill said, pushing Lana and Steve in their stroller around the Silver Lake Reservoir. The sunset-hour routine helps relax her when she feels anxious. “Most nights, it’s just [Lana] and I.”
Meanwhile, Beachwood Canyon residents David Atrakchi and Sophie Meister, both actors and producers in the film industry, take their Bengal cat, Taita, for hikes near the Hollywood Reservoir, Bronson Canyon and even Joshua Tree. Taita prances along rock walls and rolls in the dirt, meowing with his tail held high.
“When he has his tail up, he’s happy,” Atrakchi said on a recent hike overlooking the reservoir.
The practice comes with benefits and risks. Dr. Kate Blair, a feline veterinarian at the Cat Hospital in Marina Del Rey, said it comes down to knowing your cat.
“For the right cat, I think it’s a great thing. That’s the key, is, not every cat will enjoy spending time outdoors on a walk,” Blair said. Confident, curious cats may do well, but cats who like predictable environments may be fearful. “It’s not something to force by any means.”
Mental enrichment is the biggest health benefit “by far,” Blair said. Under-stimulated cats may have an increased risk of obesity and urinary problems, and the ability to explore the sounds, scents and textures of the outdoors is one way to provide that enrichment.
There’s also a small exercise benefit, but remember: You aren’t walking a dog, Blair said.
“A very successful cat walk can be five minutes,” Blair said. “They go outside, they smell a bush, they look at some birds, they get to make a few choices on their own. You’re following their lead, and then you go back home.”
That’s what a walk looks like with Freedman and Smithers’ cat, Zephyr: a short, leisurely stroll up their street, with plenty of pauses for Zephyr to rest on the sidewalk or scratch a tree.
“Are you ready to go back?” Freedman said on a recent evening, noticing Zephyr had turned around. “All right, well, he’s ready to go back.”
Rescues in L.A. tend to discourage cat walking, said Gwendolyn Mathers, the executive director at Pasadena’s Tail Town Cats, a cat cafe and adoption center that partners with Kitten Rescue Los Angeles, one of L.A.’s largest shelters. Tail Town Cats doesn’t exclude adopters who consider walking their cats. However, they advise caution due to the many uncontrollable factors that could spook a cat outdoors like cars, dogs and wildlife.
“That’s what this is all about,” Mathers said. “What do you have control over?”
If a cat panics, Mathers said, anything could happen, including losing the pet.
“Anyone who has wrangled a scared cat knows it’s not just like picking up a dog and holding them,” Mathers said. “They are clawing you to get away because, to them, that is a life-and-death situation.”
Luke described a similar experience during one of her earliest walks with Gnocchi. While holding Gnocchi, a large street cleaning truck whipped down the street and startled him into clawing away.
“He never claws me,” Luke said. “I held him as hard as I could, and he went … he just was gone like a flash.”
Luke found him in a neighbor’s driveway. Afterward, she ensured Gnocchi always left the house with a collar in addition to the harness.
Other cat walkers take precautions too. When Atrakchi and Meister hike with Taita, they carry a sturdy, mesh backpack in case Taita gets tired or nervous around dogs. Gnocchi is on a flea prevention plan, Zephyr wears an air tag and Nill’s pram gives Lana and Steve a safe enclosure.
Nill, a digital creator and actor, got her first pet stroller in a brand deal about a year ago. After one walk, Lana was hooked. She would climb into the basket on her own, meowing, purring and rolling on her back. Steve isn’t as consistently interested in the ride as Lana, but if he makes his way to the stroller, Nill takes him along too.
Her other two cats ride along less regularly. Vinny, short for Vincent van Gogh, gets nervous and prefers shorter, quieter walks, and Macaroni, named after Fleetwood Mac, makes the stroller a tight squeeze for two cats. If a friend joins Nill for the walk, the extra hands help her take them all out in two strollers.
Even in a stroller instead of a harness, people are just as surprised to see her cats out and about.
“ I’ve had people be like, ‘Oh my God, how old?’ And I’m like, ‘Uh, like, 5 and a year and a half,’” Nill said. “Then they look inside. They’re like, ‘What the heck, that’s a cat.’”
The routine doubles as exercise for Nill and enrichment for the cats, she said: “Kill two birds with one stone.”
“ They get to smell the reservoir and all the trees, and it’s close to home,” Nill said. “ I can just walk out my door, do an hour loop and then that’s the perfect amount of time for them.”
If you’re considering walking your cat, many who’ve done it offered the same tips: Start slow, don’t force anything and follow your cat’s lead.
“We started outside our building, by the pool, by the gardens, then in the street, and then we went to here, on different hikes,” Atrakchi said. Every hike is at Taita’s pace: “Very slow,” Meister said.
Be prepared: If you take your cat outdoors, they may expect it regularly. “It’s like Pandora’s box,” Atrakchi said. “Once you open it, you have to continue doing it, because they will want to go out.”
To do so safely, Blair suggested collaring and keeping cats close on a well-fitted harness. Also, avoid walking at dawn and dusk, when coyotes are active. Beware of lilies, which are toxic to cats; even chewing the leaves or licking pollen off their fur while grooming can be fatal. And talk to your veterinarian about a parasite prevention plan to combat fleas and other pests.
Cats “can have a very happy, healthy life without ever going for a walk outdoors,” Blair said. There are other ways to provide enrichment, like rotating toys every day to stimulate exploration, using puzzle feeder dishes to satisfy hunting behaviors and playing videos for your cat showing birds or fish. (Just make sure they don’t try to catch them.)
But cat walking seems to enrich owners’ lives too.
“It gives you a different perspective on your block,” Freedman said. “With Zephyr, it’s like you can really appreciate all the little things, because he is interested in every leaf, and every stick, and every bug. It’s like a moment of zen.”
“A moment of Zeph,” Smithers agreed.
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