Before October 2025

My cat grew up on the streets before we took him home at the age of 2–3 years. He had only been watching birds and squirrels from the windows for 1.5 years, he gained weight (4.3 -> 5.3 kg) so I want to take him out, but only if he wants. I took him for a walk three times in the previous week (22–28 Sep), total ~2.5 hours, and now he asks to go for a walk from time to time.

Does he enjoy walks?
He likes to walk: searches all around, sniffs, tries to hunt. But he doesn't like to be on a leash and he hates when I wash his paws. I give him a piece of food after every washing. There is a small forest with birds, squirrels, mouses, hedgehogs, etc near my flat. The building is kind of inside a forest; there are very old and impressively tall pines, much smaller birches, and other trees whose names I don’t know.

The main reason (as I think) the cat can decide stop going outside is the cold weather. It is estimated to be around 0°C (±5°C) for the whole month.

Rules

1. I won't bet on this market, as well I won't push him for a walk

2. I will call it a walk only if the cat walks outside for more than 5 minutes, just in case he doesn’t like the weather or the environment. If, for some reason, I take him home (e.g., we meet another cat) within the first 5 minutes, and my cat doesn’t want to return home, that will count as a walk as well.

3. I will write a comment about every walk

History

1. (1st) 2025-10-01, 8°C: he asked me to go for a walk, we walked for an hour. He caught a mouse and we met a black cat. That's the first walk.

2. 2025-10-02, 7°C: he was afraid of cars and people outside and decided to go home in ~3 minutes after we went out. That wasn't a walk.

3. (2nd) 2025-10-03, 3°C: we walked for an hour and a half. He wanted to stay and look for more places, but I asked him to go home, and he eventually agreed :). I carried him for a little while, but he soon realized we were heading home, and he walked willingly for the rest of the way.

4. (3rd) 2025-10-04, 2°C, rain: we walked for an hour and a half again. Met a hedgehog, got wet together under the rain (or was it wet snow?).

5. (4th) 2025-10-05, 2°C: we walked for an hour because I planned to sleep when he asked me for a walk. But he is a cat, he doesn't understand plans, he only saw that I was awake. Cat could walk even more. Didn't meet anyone today, but he saw few mouses and tried to catch.

6. (5th) 2025-10-06, 2°C: there is snow everywhere, and it seems the cat didn't like it much. We had a very small walk, he mostly sat on watched how drastically everything changed in a day. Only 50 minutes today and we came back home.

7. (6th) 2025-10-08, 1°C: we walked for an hour, he climbed some trees and searched for mouses.

8. 2025-10-11, 3°C: he asked to go out, but only explored thestairs and other people's doors. Outside he didn't like noise from people and cars (and the lack of mice in the daytime), asked to go back home in ~4 minutes.

9. (7th) 2025-10-13, -3°C: we walked for a half an hour and he ate half a mouse... I wasn't fast enough to stop him

Total count of walks so far: 7

• Update 2025-10-20 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): Creator is on a work trip and will return home on Saturday. No walks will occur during this period as the cat stays home.