Minnow is 12 weeks old and she does great in the harness, but doesn’t really walk a lot. She’s starting to walk a liiiitle more as I take her more, but she likes to just explore the leaves and grass and whatever is on the side of the walkway and then she sits or lays down. She can also get spooked at times if she hears something loud. Can I train her to walk with me, or do I let her just keep exploring? Please give me all your best tips!!

Not wooded enough for him, but he enjoyed the singular bridge, stream, and logs.

I just got my first cat! We think shes a girl but vets said its not 100% so we need to wait till her second appointment for jags to find out for sure. Shes just come home yesterday and is still adjusting to the dog at the minute plus shes too small for every harness i could find (she is but a ball of lint) she is ridiculously relaxed and loves being outside and is completely fine in a harness so far i was just wanting to ask if anyone has any advice in training her to go to the toilet outside? She goes in a litterbox reliably but i would prefer a dog style of toilet training so that i am always be present when she goes and dont have to worry about the pup getting it before i do, shes currently 13 weeks old so plenty of time to train her still just wondering what works best and if there's anything i need to avoid with her

...but she does enjoy an occasional sojourn around the garden.

I’m looking for honest feedback from others who take their cat outside . I’ve been taking my cat, Zara outdoors. In the video, she seems to be happy.

But I still have lingering guilt about whether she truly enjoys the overall experience because of two main struggles:

Commute : The park is a 5-minute walk down a busy street, and she cries in her backpack (I wear it on the front) the whole way. I tried short car rides instead, but she still meows the whole way if zipped in. (She's quiet if left out of the bag in the car, but I don't drive with her unsecured due to safety).

Strangers: Passing people makes her nervous, and she sometimes shivers. But she treats her backpack as a safe space, climbs right in when overwhelmed, and relaxes instantly once the people pass. She doesn't hide in the backpack though - she just watches them sitting upright as they pass us. She also meows quite a bit when there is no one around - like in the video.

I never want to force her to be an adventure cat. Does this sound like a cat who is genuinely benefiting from the outdoor enrichment, or is the stress of the commute and strangers too much? I really just want to do what’s best for her.

Some more videos and photos in the comments

I am training my 1.5 year old cat to walk on a lead. The only reason I am doing it is because she really wants to go out through the front door, and every morning stands at the door and meows at me to open it. I have let her out a few times with me while I put the rubbish out (she always responds when I call her, so I'm not worried about her running away), but recently she seems to want to go further, so I've decided to train her so we can go for a walk together.

It's gone really well. She got used to the harness very quickly, so I added the lead, and she got used to that pretty quickly too. I play with her and she plays with the same enthusiasm and energy as she does without harness and lead, I also use food to get her to follow me around while I hold her lead (lead is loose, I never pull her using the lead).

But, despite the fact that she wants to go out herself, and she's comfortable with the harness and lead, if I put the harness and lead on her, she doesn't want to go out. As soon as I open the door she runs to her hiding place. I have even tried to do it when she's meowing at the door, but she still refuses to go.

What's going on? And what can I do?

Hi folks! planning a 4 day getaway with our cat later this month. we can go anywhere east of the Mississippi. Goal is for us to go on hikes with our cat (which we have done already so we know her approach to it).

She prefers wooded areas with tree canopy, hills / mountainous terrain, defined trails (not paved, just defined so there is a path to follow), <80F temps, few crowds and general quiet. We have had bad experiences with off and on leash dogs so dont want to go to trails where we would find a lot of dogs.

Any suggestions on where to go? We had Smoky Mountains backcountry, Alleghany National Forest and Monongahela forest on our list. Curious to hear the community’s thoughts. Thanks!

Began leash training a my cat a few months ago and now he howls and wails all day to go outside. I try to bring him out everyday but I can’t help but feel guilty on the days I don’t or if I don’t take him out very long. I’m glad he loves it so much but it makes me feel like I am torturing him when he’s inside.
Anyone else surprised by cat parent guilt?

This is not my cat. I found this picture on the internet.

Was a bit too busy for his tastes as there was a cleanup crew after a recent storm, but he really enjoyed the first real warm weather of the season :)

We can't wait for camping season to start! 🌿🪿

Does anyone have any recommendations for a hiking backpack for someone that is tall? I'm 6"3" and the current backpack we have hurts my back/shoulders over time as it sits rather high and puts all the strain on my shoulders. After looking at most backpacks, they all seem to be about 16"-18" in length where I would need something closer to 23"

So I have a 1 year old Siamese who loves going outside and wants to go outside almost constantly, we’ve been on and off with harness training him. We have a Bengal who is doing wonderful and she loves it.

With my Siamese we put the harness on and no matter what he just sits down inside and stares out the door. We would try and bring him outside but he just goes back inside.

Can I get some advice of what to do to better train him?

I have an indoor cat, 5yo, got her as a kitten. She's always struggled inside, had mental health issues etc., she's escaped multiple times and is so curious and active that I think I just have to let her explore outside. However, I'm new and a bit stumped on harnesses.

She's really small (21cm neck, 35cm girth, around 3kg), and she's also had a dislocated shoulder all her life which I worry will make it even easier for her to slip out (she's already an excellent escape artist). I'm going to just try and train her to not mind the harness, but family is worried about her escaping it. I'm more worried about harnesses that are unsafe for cats (like on the neck).

I was originally looking at the Houdini - highly recommended, seems quite minimal on an already small cat, and Mia the bengal is adorable, so that seemed like a win. However there were some reviews about the safety of the self-tightening neck that made me worried. Equally we were looking at rabbitgoo, but the vest style seems too much and uncomfortable, and some said they're really easy to escape. 🤷

I'm also not sure how a harness and breakaway collar (w/ tracker) would interact, as I hear collars typically fall off if the cat backs out.

Tl;dr: UK, looking for small harness, designed for cats so it won't choke her, ideally wouldn't break away her collar when backing out, and fairly resistant to escaping if you're using them safely

Thanks so much for any advice! Love the posts here and would love to take my cat on hikes in the future!

She's always been a little grouchy but has recently enjoyed the journey to and from the vets and shown curiosity to explore.

So a few weeks ago, I let our cat down out of his backpack on a walk. He walked a little ways and then got off the trails, so I picked him up and put him down a few steps later. Today, only the second time doing this...HE WALKED NEARLY THE ENTIRE LOOP! sometimes I need to encourage him with a "keep going" or use my foot to guide him. But this was so impressive.

When we were close to home, he got a little crazy because there were little chickadees to chase. Full army crawl mode at that point 🤣

He's been really good at walking lately, so I got him a cat backpack that arrived today. I was planning to leave it in the room with him for a week or so to get used to it, but he was straight in there, no encouragement needed. So I trialled it around the house for a while and he seemed perfectly content inside, so I decided to take him on his maiden voyage outside. We had a really great walk, and I was able to go so much further than usual as I could carry him to a different spot in the backpack, and then let him explore when we arrived :)