So, a cat adopted us about 4 years ago.
She was a stray that found us as an older kitten, and with a cat door she comes and goes as she pleases.
After paying a bajillion dollars to have her fixed and vaccincated, I figure we should seal the deal with a colllar and ID. Within a week it was gone. Got her another one, and it vanished as well. After a couple more tries, we gave up.
She doesn’t live a hard life, and her environment is pretty benign; no industrial parks, abandoned buildings, or hiding places other than under our deck.
I was at the pet store getting dog food and other things, and saw a reflective collar on sale. Since she just got her rabies vac last week, there’s tag sitting on the kitchen counter, so I thought well, it’s been years, maybe this time will be different.
Nope. Within 48 hours of putting it on, it’s gone. I always get the safety collar with a little plastic release so she doesn’t get hung or choked to death, and I suspect that’s the answer. I just can’t figure out what she encounters in an average neighborhood that snags or catches her every damn day.
It’s for this reason that I don’t get the regular buckle type, since I assume it will be a death sentence. FTR, it’s legal for cats to roam free in our jurisdiction, but I’d still like her to have ID on her.
Does your feline have a collar, or are they smarter than you as well?
Two of 'em don’t. Other two keep them on. I watched one basically get his jaw under it, and pop it off. They’re indoor, though.
I have found that the easy release buckle ones don’t work well. The one that’s shaped like a “yin yang” with interlocking hooks might work okay. There’s also the ones where one section is secured by elastic. If the cat gets caught, the elastic breaks, which means the collar is worthless. But the buckle part is more heavy-duty.
Before there were break away clasps I had always been told you should leave the collar loose enough for the cat to wiggle out of in a jam, and so I did. the cat I had from 1996-2006 would not leave a collar on for love, money or stinky fish. I can’t tell you where you cat’s collar is, but am just here to suggest that perhaps he’s just collar intolerant and is just taking it off. I’d find Ferdinand’s in the yard, under the couch, in the bathroom…
Out previously-indoor-only cats wouldn’t keep a collar on, either. Only got the kind that could pop off, because even indoors I have seen them get into some tight spaces and have to do gymnastics to get out.
Cut to now, at least a year since I last tried to collar the rascals. We got a puppy. The puppy goes out all the time, of course, to go potty and sometimes just to hang with Mom while she’s having a smoke. Cats really want to go out as well, of course.
After a couple of escapes, I decided they were being collared again, and I have about a dozen little kitty collars that we found in various places while moving, so I was prepared.
Decided a collar was useless without info on it, so I just used clear duct tape and wrote our phone number on flourescent post-its, taped them along the collar, and they went on all three animals immediately.
Told the cats “look, if you want to go outside and not have me prison-guarding you around the yard, you have to wear these. End of story. Collar comes off, you’re grounded.”
I can tell you exactly where your cat’s collars are.
They are all hooked on low-hanging branches/twigs. Years ago my cat learned to stick a low-hanging branch between his collar and his neck and easily pull it off. We used to live next door to a Christmas tree farm and one day we went walking around, looking for collars and we found all of them in the tree farm, hanging on little branches.
My neighbor not only puts the non-breaking collars on their cats, but they also get the ones with the little tiny bell and then they really don’t feed the things…
I can tell you where all of those pretty pink collars went… straight into my burn pile. As much as I really don’t like cats, it seems inhumane to set them up as coyote bait or make it near impossible for them to hunt. Of course their cats don’t last long anyway (not vets, vacs, etc), but one cat learned the drill. Neighbor would put on new collar, the cat would find me at feed time and come tinkling up, then go bounding away bell and collar free. Never ever saw him unless he had a brand new collar on, so we (the cat and I) got along fine.
We don’t bother with collars for our cats (also indoor-outdoor through the dog flap) because they will remove them within minutes of us putting them on. I don’t think we ever caught them in the act, but I’m absolutely certain it was intentional on the part of the cats.
Tried it, first no way would I use a non-escapable collar. The first one was a stretch elastic one, she came back with it around her neck and chest, so it came off.
Ordered 3 break-aways - they all came with bells, so the bells needed to come off, the first one lasted 4 hours and she came back w/o it. The 2nd one disappeared the next day. Her and I agreed to stop all this foolishness as she know where she lives and doesn’t need a collar to get home and I never used the 3rd one and she has always returned.
I have never found any remnants of the first 2 breakaway collars, I assume she put them in a place far far away never to be seen by human or feline eyes again.
Microchip! I don’t even want the thing! Mrs. Duc started feeding it one day, and as the winter came she started letting in the basement at night. Then the house sometimes. Then the house all the time. Canned cat food and catnip for crying out loud. For a stray cat!
Then one day she turns up, um, ovulating. I can either do my white trash impression and let her make more, or be socially responsible and have her fixed. A stray cat! On my dime!
Damn cat. She’s paying off her debt by catching rats in the basement and attic.
Microchips can drift. Of the 4, 2 cats have them where they should be, between the shoulder blades. One is in a ??? location, and the other has his somewhere by his right side. I have no idea how thorough they are. Thankfully the two that pop their collars (in the non-douchebag way) are the ones with the least need to wander.
My current cat came from the shelter chipped. She wears a harness with her license and ID tag, as did her predecessor, if she’s going outside (enclosed patio or on leash/in carrier). I think harnesses are safer, since there’s no choking hazard, and our previous cat actually slipped his correctly adjusted harness once (he was tethered to a piece of furniture at DH’s parents’ and got upset about something, slipped the harness, and went behind the sofa), so getting trapped in a bad situation seems less likely.
So, one of our Dachsunds is allergic to flea bites. Been scratching and chewing like crazy.
Seems the only solution is a scorched earth approach for yard, house, bedding, and bodies. For the first time ever, they’ve got flea collars. And, in an effort at plugging all the holes, the cat got one too.
Mind you, she won’t keep a regular collar for nuthin, but so far, she’s kept this stupid flea collar on for a week now. It has a non-choke release like others, but it’s still here.
