Hi,
I have two cats respectively 2 years old and 1 year old. I just moved to Cambridge MA from NYC. This means a bigger apartment and a quieter street. My two years old cat has always tried to escape and see the big outside world. So I decided to leash train her. She absolutely adores going outside! Will come running whenever I have the harness in my hands. She even wants to walk when it's raining! But as soon as we go outside she becomes very hard to deal with. Whenever I frustrate her: like not letting her exploring someone else garden and everytime I move to bring back inside she starts growling, hissing and swating at me . Today the worse almost happen: she succeeded to escape from her harness and ran under a door to someone else garden. By calling her I was able to bring her back to my side of the fence and ran home with her. This can't continue, something bad will hapen. But I feel horrible of depriving her of something that she clearly craves. She is a cat. She is meant to feel grass under her feet, hear birds singing, hunting insects ect.. I know all the risks that come with having an outdoor/indoor cat. But I am still thinking about it. There are some increasing risks I know but she would be happy. After all there is some higher risk for all of us and we still go outside. I would prefer being able to walk her on a leash. But I have no idea how to modify her behavior and I am afraid of one day losing her.
Please give me your honest opinions.
I have two cats respectively 2 years old and 1 year old. I just moved to Cambridge MA from NYC. This means a bigger apartment and a quieter street. My two years old cat has always tried to escape and see the big outside world. So I decided to leash train her. She absolutely adores going outside! Will come running whenever I have the harness in my hands. She even wants to walk when it's raining! But as soon as we go outside she becomes very hard to deal with. Whenever I frustrate her: like not letting her exploring someone else garden and everytime I move to bring back inside she starts growling, hissing and swating at me . Today the worse almost happen: she succeeded to escape from her harness and ran under a door to someone else garden. By calling her I was able to bring her back to my side of the fence and ran home with her. This can't continue, something bad will hapen. But I feel horrible of depriving her of something that she clearly craves. She is a cat. She is meant to feel grass under her feet, hear birds singing, hunting insects ect.. I know all the risks that come with having an outdoor/indoor cat. But I am still thinking about it. There are some increasing risks I know but she would be happy. After all there is some higher risk for all of us and we still go outside. I would prefer being able to walk her on a leash. But I have no idea how to modify her behavior and I am afraid of one day losing her.
Please give me your honest opinions.