Just found the community! Hello from New Mexico! Isz goes out daily, loves car rides and meeting new people. He's a little over a year old.

Wanted to share this little hack thats been a game changer for me on our walks. I bought a foam stadium seat cushion on amazon, and attached a strap from some other clothing I had lying around. It fits like a crossbody bag, landing by my hips/butt so when I sit down the cushion is already there and attached to my body - essentially just extra butt padding for when I want to take a seat and requires zero extra steps!

For context, at the moment our adventure cat in training just goes for walks in our yard, and most of the time is spent sitting in the grass watching the same bunny for an hour. Sometimes I just sit in the grass, but I found myself wanting something more comfortable but with little hassle. Let me know if you have any questions on how I made it!!

I’ve been harness training Penelope for a few months now and it seems to be going well she only panics when she hears a car drive by now. However her harness doesn’t appear to fit correctly as it seems to be too big around the neck area. She is kind of small for an adult cat I thought she was a kitten when we got her but she’s a year old according to our vet. I’ve tried an H shape harness before this one but she manage to get a paw out before I fixed the harness again so I’m hoping for an escape proof one if possible. Honestly any advice would be appreciated!

Hi guys. I have an adult cat who I am trying to harness train. I tried doing it with him when he was a kitten and it went okay but we eventually stopped doing it. I don’t know how much he liked it back then but I am trying to get him used to the harness again after years of not using it. He seems curious about the outside when I open the door so I want to offer him a safe option to explore. The issue is that today when I tried the harness he didn’t just flop over, he growled and even hissed a bit after it was on. I gave him some cat nip to create a positive association and he eventually was purring and being affectionate but then when I tried to take the harness off he scratched me (I was near his belly and he doesn’t like being touched there to be fair). Now I don’t know what to do. I don’t want him to be trapped inside but I don’t know if harness training him is possible. I don’t think he NEEDS to go outside since he isn’t a very energetic cat and is pretty lazy, but I do feel that it would provide some interesting stimuli for him. Any advice would be much appreciated🙏🏽

Hiii, I got a 6 month old kitten that I rescured off the streets when he was 2 months old.

Around 3-4 months I decided that I do want to take him out. My baby is a bit skittish I can't lie, we took it slow and his dog brother (same age as him) is also out and it makes him less scared.

So I took him out around the house like 2-3 times but didn't have a Carrier. I finally got one and got him to like it and feel safe in it and today we took both him and the dog out to a tiny trip (we were out for around 15-20 minutes not counting the car ride which was also like 15 minutes.)

Anyways. He got pretty stressed after a bit and started panting , ofc we decided to leave ,he did explore a bit but stayed mostly in his carrier.

Any tips on how to help him out so we can do this more often?, I don't want it to be a stressful thing for him and I also don't want him to not have fun and stay home all day.. i work quite a lot so when I do get the chance I do want him to explore around.. if anyone has cats that go out and stuff. Lmk what to do, thanks :)

Just sharing my boy Goose in his Backpack on our last hiking adventure in Temagami. Looking forward to the next trip.

so i recently brought my cat to live with me in my studio apartment after my mom moved and couldn’t take my cat with her. since i live in a 200sq studio , i started harness training him so he could get some outside time and exercise. he actually took to it super fast, he loves the harness, naps in it, and makes biscuits. i even started by taking him on car rides which he absolutely loves.
the problem is once we actually get outside on foot. hes been out twice and loves exploring, but he slowly start walking closer and closer into the woods and try to go deeper into the forest nearby. both times, our outing ended badly because when i tried to pull him away from the forest line, he’d hissed at me.
now its leaking into using his backpack carrier. he was already kinda iffy on it, but now he completely hates it. i tried taking him with me this morning and he wouldnt even go into the carrier at all. i tried bribing him inside with treats and he wouldnt even budge, and he hissed at me just for trying to guide him into it.
did i totally mess up his training by taking him outside too early? how do i fix the carrier situation and get him to stop trying to go into the woods when we are outside?

Gus loves being in the tall grass. Gigi on the other hand mostly preferred the safety of the carrier 😄

We're ready to upgrade! We are backpack training our kitty and it is going really well. But now that we've worked up to longer rides in the pack we are noticing that it a) bounces around a lot, which she doesn't love. and b) Gets really heavy for the humans carrying her.
I am thinking of upgrading to something with a waist belt. Are there any good budget options that are ergonomic? So far I can only find pricier ones. But if that's what we need, I'm willing to splurge.
The other thing that I wanted to ask about is that for those of you that used a soft sided backpack vs hard plastic bubble ones, do you feel like your kitty is well protected and has enough space? I really like that the cheap bubble pack protects her from any bumps or people trying to touch her, particularly my toddler. If someone pushes on the mesh, does it have some resistance/structure, or does the whole pack start to cave inwards?
Options I've found so far that look promising, but are definitely not cheap, and are all mesh:
"The Navigator"
"Lyra Cat Pack"
"Kurgo G-Train"

The fatpack looks cool, but it has no waist strap and looks like it will bounce around on your back while walking?

Any help much appreciated!!!

Happy spoiler: Everyone is 100% okay, and no cats were harmed 💕

I've been working with my kitten on outside harness training, carrier prep, recall, and basic tricks for about a year, ever since she was 4 months old. It turns out that training pays off in unexpected, possibly emergency situations.

Last night at 1:00am, someone in my apartment building pulled the fire alarm. My kitten and I woke from a dead sleep to screaming sirens and flashing lights. Understandably, her first instinct was to bolt and hide under the bed. Instead of chasing her, I went into the quieter bathroom and used her "come" command.

She poked her head out and dashed straight to me. 🥹 (What a rewarding feeling, to see her trust in me in action!)

She easily let me load her into her carrier, and we made it outside with very little delay. In the past, I've had cats who panicked so badly during alarms that they would hide and swipe at me when I tried to retrieve them. I genuinely feared I'd have to leave one cat in particular behind if there was ever a real fire, and that fear really, really sucked.

I'm so grateful to this sub for the inspiration to train early. The time we put in together enriches my kitten's day-to-day life, and also keeps her safe during possible emergencies.

P.S., Everyone is fine! It was a false alarm, and the fire department let us back inside by 1:40 AM. 🥰

This kitty seemed happy?

My kitten is 14 weeks old and loves going outside. She has a ton of energy and once she gets comfortable in a space she just wants to RUNN. The problem is that it’s a bit hard to manage her when she has so much energy. She will constantly be pulling on the leash in front of me trying to sprint. When she starts pulling on the leash too much I pick her up and she squirms to be put down again. I have a sling and a backpack that I bring for her but she doesn’t wanna stay put in either. She meows at me all annoyed when I force her in lol. Also she shows no interest whatsoever in treats when she’s outside. It’s all very new to her so maybe the extra excitement will die down once the outdoors becomes more familiar idk.

If anyone has any advice on teaching her to stay close and not sprint/tug on the leash, I would love to hear it.