Harness Training?

magycmyste

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Cleopatra is an indoor cat, so I've not even gotten her a collar yet.

Most of the time, she shows absolutely no interest in going outside. However, there have been one or two times when she's shown enough curiosity in going outdoors, and has actually gone outside, once when I was talking to someone at the door, and another time as I was coming home from work. I gave her a couple of minutes, carefully supervised, and brought her back inside. And my mom has been here for the past week, helping take care of me since I got my wisdom teeth taken out on Wednesday. She likes having the windows open all the time, so Patra's bee spending a lot of time staring out the windows as well. Also, I know that if I visit my parents' place or move back in with them after college, my mom will want to let 'Patra get some fresh air in the garden.

Basically, I want her to be an indoor cat, but would it be a good idea to harness train her anyway, in case she ends up wanting to go out? Or for my parents' house, so I can at least supervise her? Or should I just put my foot down and say she's staying in all the time? She's 4 and a half months old now, so I figure if I do want to harness train her, now would be a good time.
 

goldenkitty45

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Personally, I'd keep her as an inside cat. She can be entertained by treehouses by the window and a bird feeder outside that window.
 

abbycats

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Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Personally, I'd keep her as an inside cat. She can be entertained by treehouses by the window and a bird feeder outside that window.
I agree with this! I am having problems with my cat since he has been harness trained. He is constantly at the door crying to go out and he escaped last night. Thank god I noticed he wasn't around and went looking for him. He has been right at the back door every time I go out today trying to play hoodini.
 

missymotus

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My 3 go out on harness and love it. I don't have any problem with them trying to escape or crying to get out at other times, they soon learnt that harness=outside time.
 
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magycmyste

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Thanks for the input! I'm still a bit undecided, but I'm leaning towards putting off the harness training for now.

...Although she does jump for the doorknob occasionally. She can't quite reach it yet, and I keep it locked, but...

I am considering getting a cat tree, though - especially since I found a company on eBay that makes decent sized cat trees I can afford.

Think I'll make that a separate thread, though, as I think it's a separate issue.
 
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