Adventure Cats.
A recent trend is attracting the attention of more cat owners: to take your cat hiking. Because of Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube images of cats enjoying the mountains, it’s becoming a trend to train your cat to go exploring the outdoors on a leash or in a backpack. People who promote this practice say that it is enriching for a cat and lets them live fuller lives. I have to admit that those pictures of cats enjoying the view from mountain tops look like fun. The cats seem to be enjoying themselves. However, the risk is not worth the reward. I definitely recommend people do not take their cats on leashed walks in the forest or the wilderness. I also realize that many people who want to do this will not be persuaded by my objections, so I would like to offer a series of precautions for those who still take their cats hiking in spite of the risks.
If you hike or climb anywhere, it’s only a matter of time before you run into dogs off leash. Even in areas where dogs aren’t allowed to be off leash, you know someone is going to do it, eventually. When an excited dog suddenly approaches, whether friendly or aggressive, a cat is going to panic. If you pick up your cat to keep him safe, it is very likely he will claw and bite at you out of reflex. It can be very hard to maintain your grip on a panicked cat. I have witnessed people who picked up a cat when the cat was freaking out, after I told them not to. They insisted they would be able to hold onto the cat. They were wrong. Holding onto a panicked cat is like trying to hold a blob of jello with whirling razor blades. Even if you are willing to be scratched and bitten, you still won’t be able to hang on.
If your cat is on a harness, that can go wrong in one of two ways. In one scenario, the cat backs out of the harness and bolts. Even if you think a harness is snug and well-fitted, it is very likely that your cat will be able to back out of it if he panics. There are harnesses that cinch up when the cat pulls, and tighten their grip. It seems like these harnesses may actually stay on your cat even when they try to back out of the harness. The trouble with a harness like that is that the cat may yank the leash out of your hand if there is a sudden commotion and he panics. If your cat is running into the brambles with a harness that he can’t get out of, he could get stuck somewhere and be trapped, or be left dangling somewhere, unable to get out of the harness. On a recent search, the cat bolted with the harness and leash attached. He dove into the brush. Three days later, we found his harness and leash dangling from a fence. Apparently he had jumped down from the top of the six foot fence while his leash was caught on the latch on the far side. The harness was dangling 3.5 feet off the ground. It was fortunate that he slid out of the harness and wasn’t left hanging there. We found him near where the harness popped off, unharmed.
Losing a cat in the mountains or the forest is different than a cat going missing in a suburban neighborhood. It can be very difficult to find them, and most of the tools you would normally use to find a lost cat won’t work in the mountains or the wilderness. For example, if your cat went missing in your neighborhood, you would have a chance of finding him by talking to the neighbors, checking under their decks, putting up fliers, asking people to check their surveillance cameras, or using a search dog to check nearby hiding places. If your cat is lost on the top of a mountain, many of the usual ways of finding a cat would not be useful there. A search dog could help if available and if it’s not too far to travel. The search dog can’t help with every lost pet case, though, and may not be available in time.
If you take a dog hiking in the mountains or wilderness, there are precautions you can take, such as training, proper leashes and harnesses, GPS tracking units, and radio tracking collars. Plus, many dogs end up coming back to the trailhead and waiting by the car if they get separated from their people. It would be much harder to put that kind of safety gear on a cat, and a cat is probably not going to follow a scent trail back to the trailhead. Cats tend to hide near the point of escape. In the wilderness, that can mean a million places to hide, some of which won’t be accessible to searchers. There may be cats that reliably come when you call their names, but I haven’t met one. It just wouldn’t be very cat-like to be obedient. Even if your cat does come when called, you should not rely on that recall ability when the cat is panicked.
Of all the cats I’ve ever had, I once had a favorite cat. He was very dog-like in many ways. He loved to go outside for adventures. We spent a lot of time and effort, and money, creating catios, outdoor enclosures meant to let him be outdoors and still be contained. These made him miserable, and he spent all of his time working on ways to escape. We eventually gave in to his demands and let him go out. He was much happier that way, until the day we lost him and never found him again. What should we have done? Should we have made him stay indoors and be miserable? In hindsight, I wish we would have. He probably would have come to accept it in time, and he would have lived longer. Today, if I had a cat that absolutely had to be outside or he would start developing health problems from anxiety, I would at the very least train him to accept wearing a collar or harness, and I would put a tracking device on him. Tracking units, either GPS or Bluetooth, are not foolproof, but they can help. Such things didn’t exist when I lost my favorite cat, or he probably would have been wearing one.
If you are going to take your cat on wilderness adventures, even knowing there is a significant risk you will lose him, please at least take some precautions before you go.
1. Make a scent article and store it in the freezer.
2. Have a tracking device on a collar separate from the harness that the leash is attached to.
3. Be sure to get some clear, simple, cropped pictures of your cat against a plain background.
4. Don’t chase your cat if you lose him in the wild or in the forest.
5. Don’t call your cat’s name.
6. Read the Guide to Finding Your Lost Cat BEFORE your cat goes missing.
I have two dogs that find lost pets. One is a scent-trailing dog that is trained to follow the scent trail of a specific cat or dog. He has found many dogs. So far, he has not been able to successfully track the scent of a cat. That has to do with several issues, including that cats don’t usually run from point A to point B. They create pools of scent. Also, they tend to go over and under obstacles where a search dog can’t follow. My other dog is trained to find lost cats. He is a cat-detection dog, and he works like a bomb-sniffing dog or a drug detection dog. He is looking for any cat he can find. The theory is that your cat is probably hiding nearby, and the search dog can find him in hiding places that would be difficult to check visually. He has found at least 350 cats in his ten-year career. If your cat was lost in the wilderness, and if we were available, we would probably want to bring both dogs, the scent-trailing dog and the cat-detection dog. In order to make use of the scent-trailing dog, you would need something with the scent of the missing cat. This could be a harness or collar, or his carrier, or a bed or a blanket he sleeps on. For insurance, you should create a scent item with the scent of your cat, just in case. To do this, you would take a clean paper towel and rub it all over your cat from head to toe. Hopefully he would shed a lot and the paper towel would be covered in his fur. Take this paper towel and place it in a ziplock bag and write his name on the outside with a sharpie, and the date. Stick it in the freezer, and it can be used for at least a year, possible up to three years after creating it. You should make a new one every year, just to be safe.
If your cat goes outdoors or goes on adventures, it would be best if you could have a tracking device on a collar. If your cat is going to go hiking in the mountains with you, I would like to see him wearing three types of tracking devices, but of course that would be too bulky and heavy. Bluetooth tracking devices, such as Apple AirTag, have the advantage of long battery life. I have had one on my small dog for about 14 months, and the battery is fine still. It doesn’t have great range. You need to be within about 40 feet to detect it. Theoretically, your Apple AirTag should be registered by anyone with an iPhone that walks near it, but that hasn’t always worked reliably. If your cat was lost in the wilderness, and he had an Apple AirTag or similar Bluetooth device, there is a good chance you could find him just by doing a through grid search of the area. You would eventually come within thirty feet of him and register the tag. The other nice thing about a Bluetooth tracker is that it is light and small, and probably won’t bother your cat. GPS trackers work from miles away, using cell towers. They have several drawbacks for an adventure cat. They weigh a bit more than a Bluetooth tracker. Their larger size would be too cumbersome for many cats of average or smaller size. If you have a big cat, a GPS tracker might be okay. If your cat does have a GPS tracker, you need to find him before the battery runs out. The other type of tracking device is a radio collar. It is bulky and expensive, and probably not suitable for most cats. If you do put an Apple AirTag or a GPS tracker on your cat, be sure to put it on the collar, and not on the harness where you have the leash attached. That way, if he backs out of the harness, he will still have the collar on with the tracking device attached.
I hope you have a million pictures of your cat. Probably, you already have one that is very simple and plain, showing his identifying features clearly. If you don’t already have a picture that would work well on a LOST CAT poster, please take one now so you will be ready, just in case. The picture for the poster should clearly show the most unique identifying features of your cat. If your cat has no identifying features, such as a black cat that looks like every other black cat, at least get a good, clear, simple picture that shows the overall size and shape. Even solid black cats can have distinguishing features, such as size and proportions. Have a picture ready, and share it with friends so it would be available even if your phone is lost.
If you have some sort of incident, and your cat does dart away from you, Do Not Chase him. Don’t panic. Act like everything is cool, like there is no problem. If your cat ran off because of a dog or because of some other frightening creature or thing, concentrate on getting that threat out of the area. After everything is calm again, just sit down and talk to yourself in a calm, normal tone of voice. The idea is that you want your cat to come to you. This could take up to 45 minutes. You might think that you want to pursue your cat into the brush and try to catch him. This is the worst idea. It will push him further away and make him harder to find.
Don’t call your cat’s name if he goes missing. People almost never believe me when I give this advice. Many people would say that their cat will always come when they call his name. That may be true under everyday circumstances, but when your cat is in a panic, typically he would run farther away or deeper into a hiding spot if you call him. Especially if your voice has any tension or worry in it. Instead of calling his name, just talk in a normal tone of voice, as if nothing is wrong. Read a book out loud. Call someone and talk on the phone. Even if your gut instinct says you should call your cat’s name, ignore your gut and listen to proven advice.
Please read the Guide to Finding Your Lost Cat BEFORE your cat goes missing. There are many ideas and techniques you need to know right away, in the first moments your cat is missing. You can do a lot of damage by taking the wrong approach. Really, it would be best if every cat owner would read the Guide to Finding Your Lost Cat before their cat goes missing, but if you are going to take your cat hiking, you definitely need to know this ahead of time. It’s like knowing CPR. Everyone should know CPR for humans and for pets. However, if you are going into a situation where there is an elevated chance you are going to need to know CPR, then you would take the course to be prepared. Taking your cat hiking is increasing the risk of him going missing, and you really ought to be prepared to know the best ways of finding him.
If your cat is missing in the wilderness, please contact Three Retrievers sooner rather than later. If your cat just went missing, you might not even need us, but there are things you should know and do right at the start. When people contact us a long time after their pet has gone missing, our ability to help is diminished.
Finally, if you are still taking your cat on hikes even after knowing there is a significant risk to his safety and his life, I would ask you to take a moment to examine your motivations. Many people will say they are doing it for the enrichment of their cat and because they enjoy his company. There may be some truth to that. I suspect, however, that many people are taking their cats hiking because they saw a cool picture on Instagram, and they thought it would be great if they could post a similar picture of their cat looking majestic on a mountaintop. If your primary goal in taking a cat hiking is to get a great picture in the wilderness, to get more likes on Facebook, I would suggest you use photoshop to add a wilderness background for your cat while he is safe at home. Lots of cats are instagram stars while they stay safe in their homes. Get creative with your photography and keep your cat safe.
If you want to go on adventures with a companion animal, please get a dog!
Great information! I will definitely pass this on to my son and his wife who recently adopted a cat (Rosie). She is strictly an indoor cat and sits on the window seals and cat condo watching all the wildlife talking which is so cute but a little sad. They do have a harness that they recently purchased but haven't taken her outside yet. it would only be in their backyard but I am still a little nervous about that so I will have them read this article. Thank you once again..
Since I have cats I especially enjoyed this article. They are never outside but if something unusual happened and they escaped the house I would need these tools to help find them.