About harnessing your cat(s) -- we did this some years back with a cat that just HAD to be outside, and made our lives miserable until he got his way. We found that rather than trying to "walk" him, we simply put the harness on him, took him outside immediately, and attached the harness and short leash to a longer line clipped on our outdoor clothes line with swivels, so he had travelling room. He was so happy to be outside, he would forget all about the harness. If you don't have a clothesline, you can string a line from your door to a tree, the garage, etc. just to give them some travel (assuming you live in a house, not an apartment). We kept a close eye on him, and the other cat, who also wanted to be out if the first cat did... Both seemed to forget all about the harness once outside, even though the second cat was an absolute escape artist. The first cat would demand to go out, but would resist having the harness put on him at first, but then eventually would let us put it on him, since he knew that was the only way he would get outside. Sometimes he would even skip supper to go out, so I would put his food outside for him. He did walk on the leash eventually, but not like a dog. My husband would take him on a walk around the house every night, and the cat expected this tour every night, rain or shine, whatever the time. He wanted to go where he wanted to go, however, so I'm not sure who was walking whom. He did catch some chipmunks while leashed, got into a scrap with a neighbor cat, and once caught a young bird while I was leading him on the short leash! Also, one of the neighbor kids came into our yard and was going to hit him with a club...so it's dangerous out there (stray dogs and cats, wild animals, insects, kids, etc.)and you need to keep a close eye on them. The cats will also be very demanding if they like the outdoors, so consider carefully if you want to deal with this. Our cat would really make a fuss to go out, even when it was raining, 20 degrees below zero, snowing, etc. We had the long leash rigged so we could reach it from the back door, and we would put him out on the back porch for a few minutes until he wanted back in, so he would knock it off! But he would be back at it in an hour or two. I have seen people occasionally walking with a cat on a leash, but ours never liked to walk on the sidewalk - probably partly because we live on a busy street with noisy truck traffic. We do not put our current cats outside, but they have a nice big screened porch which they and we love. Life is much simpler for all of us this way.
Originally posted by HowieDawn:
We are attempting again to "walk" our cats on a leash. I noticed that Pesto had one in his picture in another forum. We bought a harness the other night. All of the cats are taking their turns wearing it. Gina thinks that something is following her, Lucy thinks that something is attacking her (she flops around in the floor,) and Molly, she is just too little right now. We put the leash on and they just flop down and won't budge,

Has anyone tried this yet?

The reason why we are doing this is they look so pitiful looking out of the windows and watching the birds.


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