“Catio”? I find the implied pro-cat advocacy and the username in the above post to be … erm … ironic! 
I see a wolf-kitten in your future. Don’t fight it. You know you want one.
I am a cat person. I must be, for I am addicted to the purr.
Some animals are impossible to harness. Cats have such a narrow shoulder, they are essentially “shoulderless.” And a normal cat posture when walking, the neck and head form a perfect slope downward. You add that fact to the knowledge that cats know how to go into reverse, and then you can see how harnesses may not work.
Beck has Siamese, however, and they may be seduced by the bling. They’re royalty, after all.
As for conquering cathedral ceilings? Cats can levitate.
~VOW
Yep. Earlier the sweet girl came and sat on my lap for awhile. Purring at top decibels. I had the Wal-Mart harness right next to me. The picture on the harness shows it on a Chihuahua so I figured I could make it small enough with the adjustments. I actually got it on her. I was well pleased. She didn’t fight me at all. Then she woke up, stood up and in one motion walked out of it. And was gone, with the stink eye look on her face.
The harnesses I ordered are ‘for’ cats. I have alittle hope, yet. The little boy hasn’t came near me since I measured him yesterday. Even at treat time he was standoffish. He tends to hold grudges longer.
I had the French doors open awhile this evening. They were really interested. A moth flew in and started flying around the hanging light and fun was had by all.
I’m having a similar issue with the two kittens I got in November. They’ve been fine with not going out in the snow. Fine with not going out in the cold. Now that the weather has improved to the point that we’ve got windows and doors open, they are seriously thinking about tearing out the screens so they can get outside. There are BIRDS out there.
We are trying to figure out how to either apply something to the fence (mostly six feet, but only five feet in the back–not that it matters, six feet means nothing to them) or build them a catio. I have not had great luck with cat harnesses myself. One of my kitties is pretty much a liquid cat who can get out of anything.
Other wildlife observed in my neighborhood: great horned owl, foxes, and coyotes. One sighting of a porcupine (I didn’t see it but one of my neighbors got its picture on her front lawn, ambling along). These are several good reasons not to let my cats become outdoor cats. I have a big house with lots of fun cat places and they have each other. (They are littermates and they have a lot of fun together. INSIDE.) We are all eagerly awaiting Moth Season which is just around the corner.
So we’re working on the catio option. I hope the harness thing works out for your kitties!
My late overlord liked going out on a leash…it was, after all, a chance to go outside and still be safe. He was a broad-shouldered cat, however, most like a Chartreux Chartreux - Wikipedia , and loved being in my company, so maybe a leash was better for his body type than for a slinky Siamese. We didn’t walk much, as he would stop to sniff and just look around. He taught me more about paying attention than any meditation teacher ever did, and he taught me about bird-watching, an activity that doesn’t come natural to me.
Some friends let their part Siamese go out safely with the aide of a very large cage in their back yard, which they move around from time to time, to stay out of the sun. Their cat is amenable to being caught and put in the cage, however, which yours may not be. He likes sitting and listening to what is going on, and smelling the smells in the breeze. (He is blind, but it doesn’t seem to bother him at all.) It’s an inexpensive, portable system, but you must be constantly on the alert for changes in the weather or other factors that might pose a danger.
I opened the doors this morning while the cats were having their breakfast. Me and the dogs went out on the deck and waited.
Those 2! IDK. They just flummox me. They came right to the threshold, and took a bath. They looked and sniffed the air. Never crossed the doorway. I tried calling them out. They looked at me like I was insane.
When I went to maybe pick them up they sauntered off, tails high in the air. And looked totally bored.
– If we can get our human to think we don’t want to go out, maybe the door will be left open sometime without human and dogs standing right there to catch us –
Seconding the catio suggestion. Mine are indoor-outdoor; but that’s got a lot to do with the particular place that I live (and vice versa, one of my important criteria was a relatively safe place to let the cats out.) – my parents, at one point, had a cat pen built around a tree, including wire over the top of course, and with a door leading into the house. The tree provided shade and climbing possibilities, and the cats loved it out there. If the cats didn’t want to come back in when my parents wanted them to, they’d just turn on the sprinklers.
This
is how I picture **Beck’s **kitties.
Mrs. Plant (v.3.0) rescued our cats from a dumpster during a meteor shower. They are terrified of being outside, and run away when the door is opened.
Have they been neutered? If not, they probably just want to get laid. Once my cat was neutered, he ceased pining for the great outdoors.
Yes, they both are neutered.(bro./sis.pair)
I got the message my package is at the post office. I’ll pick it up tomorrow. And the games begin. This should be exciting.
Beckdawrek, you should try the whole harness and leash thing indoors before introducing the incredibly more uncontrollable variables of the outdoors. Wind, loud trucks/buses/cars, birds, bugs, ambulances, neighbors, squirrels, rabbits, random plastic bags…
I have a catch, neuter, release feral kitler that allows me to put a harness and leash on him. Now, this in no way suggests ownership or control, this is merely a social contract between the two of us. I want him to stay close to me and for the most part he agrees, but we both know if he wants to bolt there is nothing I can do to stop it. The first time I took him in the yard on the leash, I made the mistake of trying to move an empty garbage can. The rumble spooked him, he jumped six feet forward, four feet up until he reached the end of the leash. His perfect leap suddenly stopped and he rotated bottom first 180 degrees, harness being the pivot point. Now parallel to the ground, belly to the sky, a quick shrug and he completes the flip, lands, skitters another six feet away glaring at me. Freaked by the last few seconds and a strange new outdoor area I was able to grab him before he realized he could jail break.
I take him to Petsmart but I keep him in the kid seat in the cart on one of his fleece throws, don’t trust the dogs (owners). The vet was amused by him on a leash. I take him to work with me once or twice a month. Work is his turf, “he found me” at work, so I am comfortable with him hanging outside there especially when we have the warehouse doors open.
Oh, I won’t dare take them out til I know they can’t get out of the harnesses. I live far out in the woods. I would never find them if they got loose. They’re not fond of coming when I call, either.
I’ve sat here thinking about it awhile today. I’m afraid it’s doomed for failure. The Siamese are laying in the dog bed (no dog is ever allowed in it, I don’t make the rules, folks!) on the window seat looking at me, reading my mind, and sending me esp messages. “You just think you’re gonna put those stoopid things on us, you dummy”. I might just lay them on the cat tree and let them explore them for a day or two. We’ll see how it goes.
This did not discourage any of ours in the least. Our last boy was not even discouraged from going out and getting into fights. Huge vet bills about every six months to patch him up. He also tore through a number of screens, which we have patched up ourselves in ways creative, but ugly.
We have the fattest grey tabby barncat you’ve ever seen. He never comes near the house or me. (I think it’s a he, no kittens in 7 years). He visits Mr.Wrekkers office out there, on occasion. We see him sitting on a fence post or a barrel. So, I have some experience with outdoor cats, kinda. I only make sure his water bowl is clean and full. He’s supposed to keep the mousies cleaned out of the barn. Mr.Wrekker can’t stand the idea of ‘his’ cat going hungry so he got him a automatic feeder. Holds something like 15lbs of food at once. Along with eating spilled dog food, cat food, scraps and mousies he’s very obese. I’m sure the Siamese realize he’s out there. The dogs notice him. I don’t know how he’s alive. I’ve had to shoot coyote right near the barn. And of there’s coons, foxes, chicken hawks, bobcats, feral hogs any manner of wild beasts that should have, by all rights, done him in. We know he fights things because we hear it. I only know one time he was obviously limping. We tried to get close enough to catch him up to see about it. Failed. He healed without human intervention.
I do wonder if his smell is what the Siamese find so intriguing, outdoors.
Can I have your CDs?
Oh, you like new age music and kids bop?
ETA the box is in the house. The Siamese have noticed. They don’t like new stuff in the house. Grrrr!
Well here’s a bad cat adventure. I had some lovely tulips blooming outside, and I decided to cut some and put them on my coffee table. I even cleaned off my coffee table!
My cats–and I must have known they would do this, they did it with my Valentine’s Day roses–attacked the tulips. I tried to keep them off of them, but can’t watch 'em every minute. (What they did to the roses: Bit their blooms off, batted them around the house. Then went back to bite off another boom.)
They knocked the vase over making one hell of a mess on a sisal rug and hardwood floor. Fortunately it did not break the coffee table, which is glass. Or come to think of it, the vase didn’t break, either.
BUT, we couldn’t find a lot of the flowers. Then we found some heads.
Then one of them threw up. TMI alert, at this point I realized at least one cat had EATEN SOME TULIPS. The stems too!
I quick got on the internet. Are tulips toxic for cats?
YES.
Quick call to emergency vet, who said, based on what she knew, the bulbs are really realy bad, but if they only ate the flowers and stems, and then threw up, and didn’t exhibit certain other symptoms, they ought to be okay at least until I could call their vet in the morning (this morning).
Cue one bad night with close observations of both cats to make sure they weren’t drooling, staggering, or had diarrhea. Of course at this point they were ready for a nap so at least they weren’t staggering. Also, no drooling. We also found a couple of the stems and realized that he couldn’t have eaten all that much.
They are okay.
I knew a few things cats shouldn’t eat, but I did not know this about tulips. And many other members of the lily family.
Yeah. I used to have house plants.