Lamington
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Lamington is an adorable Ragdoll who makes us all jealous with her adventures in sunny Queensland, Australia.
We asked their mum, Gretchen, to tell us all about them.
Tell us the story about how Lamington came into your family.
We were on a waiting list to get a bengal kitten when I randomly decided to get a ragdoll!
Within a week we had found Lamington and were off to pick her up.
It was my first cat and was freaking out and Rhys had decided it was my cat to care for (Within a week he was smitten and in love).
I felt so bad taking her away from her mum but she never seemed to mind, its like she always knew she belonged with us!
When we had gone to see the kittens a few weeks before she hid and wouldn't come out, her brother who was super playful and a dark grey was so cute and Rhys wanted to take him!
But I knew Lamington was for us.
Tell us the story behind Lamington's name?
She looked like a fluffy-coconutty Lamingon!
I had seen a missing cat sign in our home town not long before with a cat called Lamington and when the sudden decision to get a ragdoll came about I knew she would be a Lamington.
What is your Lamington's favourite thing to do?
To be outside, to be with us, to go for walks.
Or to go Lizard hunting with Rhys! in the evenings he will say 'Lizards! And her tail goes up and she starts running and looking up at the roof for geckos.
Then off they go outside with a torch team hunting, he will lift her up and help her chase the Asian geckos around the high walls, its quite a hilarious site to see.
Now Jamu tags along with them but she prefers to do it alone!
What kind of adventures does Lamington like to go on?
Lamington likes to be in the bush, around trees and logs where she can look around and smell things.
She is pretty cruisy though and will come almost anywhere with us.
Tell us about your most memorable adventure
When she was a young baby we went away on a surf trip.
We snuck her into motels to sleep where she would do the zoomies so fast from bed to bed we thought everyone could hear her footsteps outside the room!
It was cooler months so while we surfed she slept in the back of the car. Then we would explore around the rocks and teach her harness training.
Why did you decide to train Lamington?
We hated to leave her home alone, she seemed to not want to either!
So I would take her in the car to visit Rhys on his lunch break because he missed her as well.
And then because we lived between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast she had to get used to travelling.
Whenever we would go anywhere, even to the shops we would just take her for a drive too!
How did you train Lamington?
We didn't really know catexploring was a thing! So we just took her everywhere and she adapted.
We had the lead and harness and used that but no special methods.
Sometimes we felt bad when she was scared that we were doing the wrong thing taking her everywhere but she quickly got used to it.
We had no idea about this whole online world of catexplorers!
What has been the most rewarding part of having a catexplorer?
The smiles it brings people when they see her!
Soooo many people have said 'Well that's a first, seeing a cat on a lead!' Little do they know of the huge numbers of catexplorers all over the world!
And for Rhys it would be taking her to work, he went to look at buying some machinery one day and she just roamed around the yards by herself. This was the first day she was trusted to be off lead (I probably wouldn't have allowed it if I was there!)
What has been the hardest?
Having to ever leave her at home alone, she looks at us like "What! But I come everywhere with you guys?"
In hindsight, what would you do differently?
Train her more on the harness. She is good at it but Rhys took her a lot of places off lead so now shes bit of a snob about it!
But she is so good off lead, she stays close and meows if she cant see us.
Also I think getting used to dogs and having them smell her and not feel threatened would have been beneficial.
What advice would you give other humans training their catexplorers?
Be patient and persistent!
The more exposure to different scenarios the better in the long run.
What are your favourite products for your catexplorer?
If they were ever to be missing we can use it to locate where they are.
This has never happened but its nice to have that peace of mind.
Is there another Catexplorer that inspires you?
@hellopistachio as Pistachio was pretty much the first catexplorer we encountered and we have adventured in the same places, just not met yet!
Follow Lamington and her sister, Jamu's adventures on Instagram (@lamingtonandjamucats)