The elder cat, Bernie (18), is pretty good on a leash. When she was a young’in I would take her on walks through the local park without any problems.
The younger cat, Cleo (14), starts off doing the lowrider thing when put in the harness. She gets over it fast though. She is not a walkable cat.
We have neighbors who have a couple of labradors with pogo sticks for legs. No fence will contain them. Because they go ape nuts when Bern and Clee are out, I will only take them out on leashes. If the dogs get out it’s much easier to grab the cats when they are leashed.
Bernie has been having medical problems (thyroid) which has caused multiple vet visits. She knows when the leash goes on and the car is out what’s going on. She’ll walk to the passenger door, wait until I open the door, and hop right on in. Doesn’t mean the actual car ride is easy, what with her trying to drive for me and play parrot on my shoulder MEOWMEOWMEOWing into my ear. She’s also very blase about dogs. Doesn’t care in the slightest, unless they’re little yip dogs.
So true.
When I was a kid we had Siamese cats that we tried to walk on a leash. When you gave them the slightest tug, they would just flop over and lie there. They never did learn.
I used a leash with one of my cats because our house was near a main road and the leash meant I could let her go out into the garden (attaching the leash via an extension, to the back gate) and I knew she couldn’t get as far as the road. It worked very well, then I moved somewhere far less dangerous and she got the run of the Great Outdoors.
I also tried with my 'Lilly cat. She’s a 'fraidycat. We walked around inside for a while. She fell over, but she’d walk in fits and starts.
Then, I took her outside in our back yard, which was in her comfort zone, or so I thought.
As soon as I put her down, she started leaping and flipping and slamming herself on the concrete. I reeled her in and went back inside, never to try THAT again.
She’s totally in to it - she was indoors only until a few weeks ago, and this is the first time she’s seen grass and trees in at least eight years.
She’ll do the boneless thing when I put the harness on, but she seems to forget about it when I bring her out. When we go back inside, she’ll squat down in front of the door, ready for me to take it off.
I have a leash for my cats, so we can show them outside if we want to. We took Dewey out on it once and he acted like “Pinky”, of YouTube fame. (I can’t search for it right now, but you know that “adopt this animal” TV news clip where the cat flies up and down and around like it’s on springs and then bites the animal control guy in the giblets? Like that.) We haven’t tried it with Eddles.
Took the indoor kitten outside for walks twice a week, but on a cat-leash. Then when we moved to the suburbs a few months later, he started following me when I’d pop out to buy a morning newspaper or whatever. Now I take grown cat for regular walks, 2 or 3 times a week. No leash necessary, he trots along and follows, so long as we don’t run into dogs.
I just got a “Come With Me Kitty” harness this weekend for my two kitties and I’ve gotten “boneless cat” and “don’t even think about coming anywhere near me with that thing cat.” This harness says it’s supposed to make the cat feel secure because it puts pressure on the sternum instead of the neck. The cats, apparently, are not buying it. But Boneless Cat at least will sniff around at stuff while playing dead, so maybe he’ll learn to like it eventually.
Our cats are indoor cats and don’t seem very curious about going outside. Except for Fiona. If we’re outside–say, sitting on the front porch–she will meow to come out and join us. Often, we will get her harness and leash out; seeing this, she happily allows us to put it on her, and we go out to explore the garden and the yard.
She walks me more than I walk her. She decides where we’re going and what we’re doing (sniffing the garden? sharpening claws on the tree? rolling in the grass?), but I reserve the right to pick her up and carry her someplace if she looks like she might get herself into trouble somehow.
But it is definitely not like walking a dog. She can be awfully stubborn, and it can be difficult to convince her that there are other things, besides what is currently capturing her interest, to investigate in the yard. But she seems to enjoy her time outdoors, in spite of the harness. And I’ll admit, I kind of like it too.
We moved 2 indoor/outdoor cats into an apartment. To easy the kitty crazies a bit, we would put them on leashes, carry them to the local park, and sit and read while they wandered around smelling stuff and eat grass. Mostly, it was an excuse to go lay in the grass for a while, while not worrying about all the other stuff we could have been doing.
Not according to some of these testimonies! Seems like there are some happy kitties out there. (Though a lot of them do, admittedly, seem to dislike the leash set up.)
This has been educational, though. I don’t think the cat I saw liked being on a leash too much, but it’s good to know that others do enjoy it.
I tried it on my ex-kitty once. He thought the leash was a toy/threat and turned over on his back to attack it. That and anytime he was outside he just cowered down all scared-like, so I figured no point.
I want to try it with the new kitteh, but I suspect he’ll do the same. He likes long stringy-lookin’ things. They’s good for battin’.
I used to have a 27-pound cat, and it was imperative that he lose weight. In addition to adjusting his diet, I decided that a little exercise wouldn’t hurt. I bought a harness and leash, took him outside and placed him on the sidewalk. But no matter what I did, he refused to move; he just dug his claws into the sidewalk. As a last resort I started to pull a little harder and a little harder. He finally started to move, and I noticed a trail of claw marks on the sidewalk, where I had just dragged him. I got more exercise than he did that day.
When I was a kid, I’d walk our dog at night. The cat would get to the door a minute or two after we left, and ask to be let out. Then he’d shadow us on the walk, and return just after us.
We gave up on leashes for our cats. We’re able to take them on walks outside without them. Midnight, being old, stays close. Clarence has gotten over his fear of the outdoors (it used to be that he wouldn;'t go outside at all), but still won’t stray far. Lotta, having gotten outside once and speding a day outdoors, is terrified that she won’t get back in, and stays close as well. It’s only our youngest, Hestia, that I’m not sure about.
Our departed cat, Maggie, was very ladylike, and always stayed close bt. Among other things, she simply couldn’t “gp” outdoors. She was so litter-box trained that she had to go inside and used the box.
when malenka the miracle cat need to lose a smidge of weight, we had 15 minutes of kittycize. she responed to the lazer dot and i could get her to zip all over the place.
i would stop whenever she would start panting. didn’t take to long and a lot of fun was had.
