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All the cool cats are wearing one

Last night, I had some friends over to watch the premiere of "Lost." Most of my cats found a quiet spot upstairs to sleep while I entertained my guests. But Apple stayed with us all night. Maybe she was feeling social, maybe she was just being nice to the new people. But I think she just wanted to show off her new collar.

As part of my new experiment to get Apple to walk on a leash, I bought her a collar. I figured it would be a good idea to get her used to having something on, so she wasn't freaking out about the collar/harness the same time she's freaking out about being outside.

I got her one over the weekend, and easily snapped it around her neck. She didn't really seem to mind it at first. Apple immediately went back to playing with Libby and the laser pen toy.

It wasn't 'til Monday that I noticed her annoyance with it. She scratches at it a lot, and she's begun to pull at it and try and bite it. I think she wants it off.

The collar is more than loose around her neck. I certainly wouldn't trust it if I did take her out with just the collar on. I plan to walk her with a harness, one I borrowed from the SPCA of the Triad on Tuesday. If this works, I'll buy her one of my own.

But, the weather people are calling for more snow this weekend, so once again, my walking experiment is going to be delayed. So she'll have to suffer through the collar a little longer.

Not that it's bothering the other cats. Apple's collar rattles, so to speak, when she walks. And now Abbey always knows when Apple is coming down the hall or around the corner. Poor Apple has lost her ability to sneak up on anyone, giving Abbey the advantage.

But I have faith she'll see this through for me, and because I keep telling her she looks just so darn cute with it on.

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Tags: Apple

Posted by Margaret Wimmer on Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 11:31 pm

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cindywitt

February 5, 2010 - 5:45 pm EST

I've been meaning to send it a story about my experience with leash training one of my cats. I have 4 and several years ago I tried to put a leash and harness on one of my cats, Loki, and he was unable to "walk"--he just fell over and wouldn't try to walk with it on, so I gave up. Then a couple of years ago I adopted a new kitten, Koko, that had been found in a co-workers backyard. He was about 6 months old and had been outside for at least a little while. Being younger than the other cats, he had more energy. I decided to try the harness again. It didn't take him long to realize the harness meant he could go outside! Now we take a walk most mornings (weather permitting!). It's more of an exploration as I just follow behind him while he explores. He's not very brave, though, because any "scary" thing, like a stranger across the way, means we need to go back inside! I also wanted to caution people to make sure you get a secure harness. There's one kind, called a "figure 8" that doesn't have an extra strap that connects the parts underneath. This was what my first harness was like and it worked great until the scary thing was a neighbor walking her dog, but it wasn't on a leash. We both got scared. I tried to pick him up to run him back home, but he was able to wiggle out of the harness. It took me a week to get him back inside the house. Now we have the other harness and it's much more secure and I can make it tighter! We also watch out more carefully for loose dogs!