I have two 6-month old Ragdoll kittens which I have had for about 6 weeks. The girl has always shown great interest in going outside. Her brother, not so much. She has tried to escape a number of times and is a very keen explorer, and a hyper and curious cat.
I thought it could be interesting to take her out for supervised walks on a harness so she can experience the grass and some of the outdoors as well as work off some of her boredom, which she seems to experience all the time. If she were not a cat, I'd think she was an Australian shepherd or something. She always has to be doing something...otherwise she is naughty (clawing furniture, getting into things she is not supposed to, etc.).
Yesterday, I put her in a harness that was slightly too big for her. She did not like it at all, slipped out of it and bolted. After a scary 90 seconds, I was able to get her back but she was keen on running as fast as she could to anywhere she could.
I brought her in and now she is twice as eager to escape when I go in and out. She will meow almost gutterally like she is in heat (she's fixed) because she wants so bad to leave. It will stop but she'll do it for like 15 minutes afterwards each time.
Is it possible to do both - have her go outside but train her to do act like a gremlin when she can't? Her brother is SO relaxed either way. He never tries to escape and is mildly curious when I take him out. I'd love for her to be like that, but they are so different.
It would make me a bit sad that she could not go outside at all because of her "gremlin after midnight" nature.
Any recommendations would be most appreciated!
I thought it could be interesting to take her out for supervised walks on a harness so she can experience the grass and some of the outdoors as well as work off some of her boredom, which she seems to experience all the time. If she were not a cat, I'd think she was an Australian shepherd or something. She always has to be doing something...otherwise she is naughty (clawing furniture, getting into things she is not supposed to, etc.).
Yesterday, I put her in a harness that was slightly too big for her. She did not like it at all, slipped out of it and bolted. After a scary 90 seconds, I was able to get her back but she was keen on running as fast as she could to anywhere she could.
I brought her in and now she is twice as eager to escape when I go in and out. She will meow almost gutterally like she is in heat (she's fixed) because she wants so bad to leave. It will stop but she'll do it for like 15 minutes afterwards each time.
Is it possible to do both - have her go outside but train her to do act like a gremlin when she can't? Her brother is SO relaxed either way. He never tries to escape and is mildly curious when I take him out. I'd love for her to be like that, but they are so different.
It would make me a bit sad that she could not go outside at all because of her "gremlin after midnight" nature.
Any recommendations would be most appreciated!
to all of the above. The most important thing is to have a harness (perhaps the jacket type?) that fits well, and slowly accustom the cat to the harness indoors, then a harness and leash, before venturing out. I trained our last cat to a harness when he was almost 4 months old, and he enjoyed a daily walk for more than 13 years. He knew he was going to get that walk, so he wasn't constantly trying to get out on his own. He was extremely aggressive with other cats and couldn't be trusted not to bite strangers, so letting him be an indoor/outdoor cat wasn't an option. Back when we started (1999) we got a lot of strange looks, but nowadays a cat on a leash isn't an uncommon sight.
