I’ve seen a neighbourhood cat lose his collar in a fight with another cat. Just one of those fun perks of being an outdoor cat, I suppose.
I’ll don my flame retardent undies and admit that my cat wears a non-breakaway collar. She kept losing them and had a habit of getting into people’s cars and garages, so I bought one that didn’t break away. I put it on her as snug as comfortably possible in hopes that it would be less likely to catch on things.
She’s worn it for three years now without managing to hang herself. We lost her for 3 weeks once during this time, and then someone called saying they’d found her 30 miles away. She was thin, but incredibly happy to see us!
I got my cat a cheap PetSmart breakaway collar and she’s worn it for over a year, but I was petting her the other day and noticed what looked like a small chafing spot on her neck, so I’ve taken it off. She’s indoor-only, so I think I may just let her go without and ask about a microchip next time we’re at the vet.
Maybe a more expensive collar would have been better.
Actually, she wasn’t ovulating. Cats (and rabbits) are spontaneous ovulators…they don’t ovulate unless they’re having sex. Or unless a vet tech uses a tiny dildo on them* to bring them out of heat. Once they ovulate, they are done with the heat cycle…for a little while, anyway.
*Do not try this at home unless you are a trained professional!
Now that you mention it, she did say the cat was in heat, not ovulating; I didn’t know there was a difference.
Ignorance fought!
I wouldn’t think an ear tattoo would work well on cats with dark ears, such as a Siamese.
I’ve had a few Siamese (seal point, the darkest). The fur on the outside of their ears is dark, and they have hair on the inside of their ears, but the skin on the inside of their ears is light, and a tattoo would stand out nicely. It might be different among other meezers, but all of mine have had light skin under the fur.
I’ve been REALLY tempted to put standard, non-breakaway collars on the cats. Last night, I think I’m glad I didn’t. Dresden-kitty came home from someplace oily and small; it looked like he’d crawled through a car engine or something. So…yeah. I am curious as to how many cats really do get ‘hung up’ on their collars. I know my Little Orange Cat tried to strangle herelf with string when she was wee, so I’ve had a perhaps more-than-usual sensitivity about that.
All these stories remind me of why I finally decided to make the damn cats stay inside once and for all.
Places I have found the cats’ collars:
In the garden, under the rosemary plant
On the trellis by the grapevine (one of the times I was happy she could break out of it)
In the car, on one side of the brake pedal
In the doghouse (a place the dog never once entered)
On a bamboo plant
In the neighbor’s front yard, sitting out in the middle of the grass
Once the cats became indoors-only:
Under the recliner
Behind the sofa
Under the kitchen table
I finally gave up putting collars on the two cats who hated them. The cat who likes his collar just got a brand-new red one with white polka dots, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say he preened himself when we put it on. SO cute, and he knows it! And everyone has a microchip, so if they do get out without a collar, there’s still a good chance they could get back to us if they were found.
Yeah, it’s gone. Lasted about 2 weeks.
effin cats.