BRINGING YOUR FUR BABY OUTSIDE OF YOUR HOME? YOU’LL WANT TO READ THIS FIRST.
Just when I thought having a dogs was stressful enough, I get cats and my anxiety skyrockets to another level.
Let me explain, I’ve heard horror stories about people’s dogs escaping a home/yard and ending up lost. I’m borderline obsessive when I leave my house (without my fur baby’s), checking and double checking doors and closing gates. Then, we got cats earlier this year and their ability to escape trumps that of a dog! For example, I can walk my dogs with my biggest concern being trying to perfect their “heel” and “leave it” commands. I never worry about them escaping their harnesses. Cats on the other hand. . . . are like magicians and can escape from even the most “cat proof” contraptions known to man! Trust me, we have tried at least 4, which all claimed to be “escape proof”. We are on our fifth one now and so far so good!. Anyway, having a high tech and reliable tracker for one of those possible “worst case scenarios”, if my cat escapes, gives me peace of mind. Knowing that if my feline fur baby pulls a houdini when we are out and about and they happen to escape the harness, I WILL find them. I can breathe easier knowing we have that security blanket.
Lucky for you, I’ve done the research, spent the money and tried alllll of the things. Now I’m going to share what I’ve found as far as trackers go.
BUDGET FRIENDLY:
Apple AirTag - These are easy on the wallet with no monthly fee and definitly effective BUT their scope is limited AND they don’t work with androids. These are what I used as our first trackers but I felt like there was more security available, if I was willing to invest more to get more peace of mind . . . . I was definitely willing. AirTags do work within most city limits but keep in mind that if there is no service, they fail. That is not very helpful if you are out in nature with no service.
MORE COMPREHENSIVE:
⌄⌄⌄ DOG ONLY TRACKER ⌄⌄⌄
Fi - I use this on my dog and it’s incredible! It helps me track my dogs’ gps location and improve their health. The only con, it’s not available for cats. I have seen a cat wearing one but I honestly don’t understand how that works, being that at the time of set up, you have to select the breed and it only gives you canine options. I suppose you could select any breed to proceed but it wouldn’t be set up properly for the health and activity monitoring.
Use my code to save $20 and get one month of free membership at activation 🐶
⌄⌄⌄ CAT AND/OR DOG TRACKER ⌄⌄⌄
Tractive - These are what I have for both of my indoor cats and I am obsessed! They have canine and feline options too! I have linked them below and if you use my link, you will get a nice discount! ⌄⌄⌄⌄⌄⌄⌄ 😻
Please also consider a truly escape proof harness for your cat if you plan on trying to leash walk him/her outside. Many claim to be “escape proof” but very few actually are. After trying 3 different harnesses, only ONE actually lived up to its claim of being escape proof and this is this one —-> HERE. You can use the code FAUNA for 10% off of your purchase. :)
Something I do also want to include is that I am NOT an advocate of leaving a collar on a cat 24/7. We only use them when we are leaving the house and have eyes on our cats 24/7 anyway. Cats have been known to get seriously hurt or even die because of collars. In fact, BOTH of our kittens have been in severely dangerous situations because of their cat collars, when we were trying to get them used to them but thankfully we were present both times and saw it happen each time; so it didn’t end in tragedy. Let me tell you though, it was TERRIFYING! The second time, we even tried a “cat safety” collar that was supposedly safer than traditional collars that don’t breakaway under pressure. NEWSFLASH, it did NOT break away to free our cat. Three of us had to struggle for almost a full minute to free him.
Moral of the story, definitely use a tracker like Fi or Tractive on your cats and dogs for peace of mind; knowing you can find them if they escape or wander away BUT don’t leave the trackers on the cats when they are unsupervised. Again, I only put them on my cats when we are leaving the house and I will be watching them 24/7 anyway. Of course that decision is ultimately up to you, I am just sharing my personal experience. I’m at 100% for cats almost dying because of collars with the two cats I have tried collars on. I have had more than 15 dogs since childhood to now and in this time, I’ve only had one dog almost get strangled from a collar. It actually just happened very recently with my Rottweiler Cooper. Fortunately he was miraculously able to break free from his super sturdy collar but I have since ordered him a breakaway collar. I think you need to take all things into account when it comes to your dogs. I never thought about breakaway collars for dogs until this year, when Cooper almost died. Cooper is very active and enjoys spending a lot of time outdoors and jumping up at the fence for various reasons. I believe this is what he got his collar hooked on, a fence post. If you have a fence that your dog can get hooked on, or anything similar, maybe consider a breakaway collar for him/her too. If it’s predictable, it’s preventable. I do still leave his collar on 24/7 because he spends a lot of time outdoors but our other dog Teddy gets his collar taken off every evening
Happy exploring, stay safe out there! :)