Category: harness

Posted in cats, experience, harness, kittens, leash, pet parents, pets, shoes, walking

Things We Learned From Bringing the Cats Out

Posted on by peanut& donut

We’ve been bringing Pea Pea and Dodo on walks pretty much as soon as they can fit comfortably into harnesses. In a previous post we mentioned why we wanted to bring them out and how we started with their training. Along the way, we learned a few tips and tricks that we found to have worked on our cats in helping them enjoy their outdoor experiences more. In this post, we will be sharing some of them with you. Again, these were what we have found to work for us, if you decide to try them on your cats, do practice some precaution as different cats may react differently in such situations.

For the most part, we only bring them out in the evening or when the sun is setting. We found that to be the best condition for them to be out in terms of outdoor temperatures. In the past we have tried bringing them out early in the morning and we’ve noticed that they are not in the mood to walk or are simply feeling too hot to walk. As both of them have rather thick and long fur, the night time weather suits them well enough, keeping them cool and allowing them to kill off some energy after a perfectly timed dinner. When we go home, they’re usually nicely drained and ready to sleep for the night.

Things to Bring

  • Harness, leash, shoes
  • Carriers
  • Ice/cooling packs, portable fans
  • Treats

When pet parents think of walking their pets, the essentials that comes to mind are usually harnesses, leashes, and shoes. In fact, we first got exposed to the idea of walking our cats from YouTube videos of adventurous cats hiking with their owners. These cats were wearing special harnesses attached to leashes. Some of them were even wearing little windbreaker jackets or tiny life vests. As for shoes, we got them because we didn’t want them to injure their paws by stepping on sharp objects or rough surfaces.

However, our experiences with our cats have taught us that they are not walkable cats. They cannot be attached to a leash and walked, like how dog owners walk their dogs. Most of the time, once the harnesses and leashes are on, they lay flat on the ground refusing to budge and we’d have to drag them across the floor in order to get them to move. We thought that would only happen in the comfort of our home but we were so wrong. Believe me, you wouldn’t want your cat lying on the ground outside. Owners who share their beds with their cats, you feel my pain. Don’t even get me started on the shoes. For the most part, the shoes stay on Dodo and she actually walks quite well with them on. But Pea Pea has what we termed “Shadowless Paws”. As soon as the shoes go up, his paws start to spin and go into a blur and before you know it, you have shoes flying off in all directions. No matter how tightly we secured them, they ALWAYS come off.

And so, we wanted to think of ways to make their experience better and to actually see them WALK instead of being carried around. We realized that the number one cause of discomfort for them was probably the shoes. So we started letting them walk around the void deck bare-pawed and they immediately walked so much better. Both Pea Pea and Dodo do not have much stamina – meaning even if they start running, they don’t go far. With that knowledge, we decided to remove their leashes and let them walk completely unrestricted. Of course we were always within a few feet distance of them just in case they do decide to start running or if they were approaching potential danger. As soon as all that came off, they began to walk less awkwardly and they also started to express more curiosity towards their surroundings. At the end of the walk, we would simply wipe them down with wet wipes or a damp towel and they will be good to go. Even though they technically do not use the harnesses and leashes to walk, we still like to bring them along as they helped us hold onto the cats when the situation calls for it.

For easy transportation to and from the park, we have individual carriers for them.

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These are the ones we’re currently using but we use a different front cover that provides more ventilation when they are in the bags. With these cute bags, Pea Pea and Dodo always receive a lot of attention every time we bring them out!

If it is a particularly warm day, we would bring frozen ice packs in their carriers to keep them cool. We found that they tend to not pant at all with the cooling packs. We also have portable mini fans, but those are mostly for us humans. Bringing along some kind of treat helps too! Although when we first started bringing them out, they were too nervous about being out to enjoy the treats. As most pet trainers would suggest, we wanted to let Pea Pea and Dodo associate being outdoors with yummy treat treats so that they would be more at ease and enjoy being outdoors, and we’re glad that they did eventually calm down enough to eat the treats.

Location

  • Quiet, less people, away from roads
  • Large empty spaces, flat ground
  • Away from grass/trees, water bodies, drains

Pea Pea and Dodo are indoor cats and do not have a lot of interactions with humans other than family members living in the same household. As such, we made sure to bring them to places with less traffic, as far away from noisy roads as possible. We did encounter some problems when finding a good location for them to roam. Most of the reservoir parks in Singapore have wonderful facilities for kids, some even have water features and splash parks in them. However, these places were not pet friendly, or at least we cannot go anywhere near the water features, which is where the shade is usually at.

We did eventually manage to find a park that has quite a nice environment and Pea Pea and Dodo seemed to quite like it as well. It’s the Waterfront Park at Woodlands! There is a huge open-air play area near the entrance where we let them roam freely. The rubber flooring of the area does not affect their paw paws as much, although there was once their white paw paws stained blue after a particularly foggy and wet day 😂. The big open space is good for them to explore, it’s cooling enough for them to lay there and watch the other park-goers as well. We also did not have to worry much about them going into the grassy areas where insects might be found. The playground is quite a distance from the sea and jetty, so we did not need to worry about them going for a swim.

All good habits should start at a young age. From our experience with bringing the cats out thus far, we have learned that it might have been better to start bringing them out when they were younger. We started bringing Dodo out in her little carrier pretty much as soon as we brought her home. But Pea Pea lived most of his kittenhood in the safety of our home. We feel that that could have led to the difference in their reactions towards the outdoors and strangers. Dodo, although cautious, is definitely more calm while Pea Pea often froze up. Perhaps bringing them out at an earlier age would help them get used to being outside.

Nonetheless, we’re constantly trying out new routines and things that might help Pea Pea and Dodo enjoy the outdoors. Maybe one day we’ll be able to bring along their toys and let them run around! If you are also a cat owner or have experience with pets, please let us know if you have any tips that worked for you! We would greatly appreciate them! 😁

Posted in cats, experience, harness, kittens, leash, pet parents, pets, shoes, training, walking

Look! The Cat is Walking on a Leash!

Posted on by peanut& donut

That is one of the things we’ll hear when we bring the cats out, alongside “Oh! It’s a cat! I thought it was a dog!” because I guess it’s not every day you see people bringing their cats out for walks.

Ever since Pea Pea was physically old enough to engage in altercations with Dodo, we would often return home for the day to find bunches of fur everywhere. It is not uncommon to see them suddenly burst into Energizer bunnies, chasing one another around the house. Most often than not, it would end up with Dodo hissing and growling at Pea Pea, with bunches of fur fluttering in the air and scattered romantically like rose petals around them on the floor.

Initially we thought maybe Pea Pea was at that age where he wants to assert dominance on Dodo, and hence, the chasing and mounting. For Dodo’s sanity, we brought Pea Pea to the vet’s for a little procedure but what we didn’t expect was for the fighting and chasing (and growling and hissing) to continue as before. After a bit of reading on the internet, we learned that indoor cats have a lot of pent up energy which they will have problems releasing unless stimulated properly.

We live in a high rise apartment building and both Pea Pea and Dodo are complete indoor cats and are not exposed to the outside world. We could see why they would have pent up energy. We had a plethora of toys available for them which worked to drain their energy for awhile, but their attention for them grew shorter and shorter.

We started bringing them out for short trips to the grocery stores or when we go out to get food. What we noticed from those trips was that, not only were they super curious about what was around them, they would almost always come home completely drained and would sleep very soundly through the night.

We took their curiosity as a positive sign and began preparing and training them for walks. We had them wear harnesses attached to leashes and shoes for a few minutes daily for a couple of weeks before deciding that they were ready for their first walks.

Pea Pea and Dodo have very different personalities. Dodo, being the alpha, is treated like a princess most of the time. She is also less social and would prefer to nap in a quiet room by herself while Pea pea is more attached to the humans. He is also a lot more vocal than Dodo. As such, we expected Pea Pea to be more adventurous and more eager to explore the outdoors. Little did we know, that was NOT what happened.

Needless to say, they were both very nervous on their first walks where we brought them around the neighborhood. Their bodies were crouched close to the ground as they made their way around cautiously. Pea Pea would continuously look for sheltered areas or secluded corners where he could hide. What came as a surprise to us, was that Dodo, while being cautious about her surroundings, was exploring every inch of the lift lobby.

We eventually removed her leash to let her walk freely, but we also made sure to be within reach of her at all times, just in case she decides to make a run for whatever it is she decides to make a run for. That seemed to reduce the weight she felt on her body as she began walking more normally, sans the crouching. She even said hi to the neighbors!

P.S. Pea Pea was a scaredy cat that’s why he’s not in the video (because he was too scared to walk).

After a few more walks around the neighborhood, Pea Pea and Dodo graduated to bigger spaces. Cat Dad was careful in shortlisting a few parks in Singapore. We visited most of them several times to find one that the fur babies are comfortable in. There were also a few tips and tricks we learned along the way to make their outdoor excursion more enjoyable for them, but we’ll talk about them in another post.

As of now, we have one park that we frequent weekly. Pea Pea and Dodo seem to like the environment there. They amuse fellow park goers by walking around, sometimes even casually strolling up to strangers to take a closer look at them. Some people come up to us to ask questions about our cats, others secretly take pictures of them to send to their friends. Sometimes kids come close enough to give them pets before squealing and running away in excitement, but for the most part, the people seem pretty chill about sharing the space with two fluffy cats.

As for their behaviors, we do notice that there are lesser episodes of Energizer bunnies dashing around the house. We also observe quite a bit of improvement in Dodo. She has been more active and playful nowadays (although she still grumbles occasionally). Pea Pea is also better at being outdoors now compared to when we first started off. He still tries to hide when we first reach the park, but as time passes, he gets more comfortable.

We might move on to other parks, we might keep going back to the current one. We’re still on a look out for other places but till then, we’re setting up base here.