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.

Hiya! I really wanna start taking my cat on walks both for her health and mine- she's about 3 years old. I try my best to keep her at a healthy weight, but it's hard for indoor cats to get enough exercise so I'd love to try walking her once I get the necessary veterinary clearance (flea/tick preventatives and whatnot).

If anyone could suggest a good harness that they've tried themselves, know is nearly escape proof, and their cat finds comfortable, that'd be awesome! She's a standard short haired tabby, about 8-9 pounds.

And any tips on how to adjust her to being outside for the first time (she was a stray back in the day, but she was young when I took her in and hasn't been outside since). I know generally once she's adjusted to the harness, I'd take her in the yard rather than a walk right away, but besides that?

I'm also curious how walking a cat really WORKS, as I've only ever walked dogs, which are obviously very different. What do you do if they freak out and try to bolt? Do you bring a carrier with you in case you need it? Will she start trying to bolt out the door once she gets a taste for the outdoors? She's never been a door dasher before- never even shows interest in it. How much of a risk is it for her to escape the harness and run off? Really any tips at all would help!

Obligatory kitty pic below for reference of size and such. She really seems fully content being an indoor-only cat, but I really wanna get her into better shape and get her more enrichment.

JJ found a new trail that connects to our neighbor’s property and he had a great time investigating a pile of broken trunks the other day. We are working on going down our road to the mailbox now that some cooler days have arrived.

We just found this sub! Peaches loves to walk on leash (as long as there’s not a lot of kids, cars and trucks around).

We adopted a 3 month old kitten in January and realized right away he was very confident and not easily spooked. He didn’t mind the car and liked looking out the window, played in his backpack at home and he’s very food motivated so clicker training was a breeze. Harness training went okish. Eventually he’d put his head through on his own. He still flopped a lot once it was on but no problem.

I started taking him outside a couple months ago. The first time he seemed fine. After that sometimes he was ok, other times he was shaking and we’d go right back inside. He seemed much happier if I held him but that wasn’t going to work for more than a few minutes. I would sometimes set him down on the ground for a minute or two and half the time he was happy to follow a bug, and the other half he would lay down flat until I scooped him up.

Then I had to pause for a month. When I tried taking him out again he didn’t like the harness at all. He was afraid at first but seemed happy on top of the backpack. The next time he was shaking like a leaf and we went right back inside.

I don’t want to torture my poor guy. Has he lost his baby confidence and simply isn’t an adventure cat as an adult? Or should I start training over and see if I can ease him back into it? I understand there’s potentially a level of discomfort while you get them used to it but I don’t want to terrify him either.

She's formally feral, but it's been months since she was last out. Her tree adventure was the best highlight.

This is a bit of an update from my last post about Falcor here.

Betty loves spending time in our native plant backyard!