I have a friend who does this. She liked the idea until winter rolled around, and she has a cat at the door in the evening, meowing for a walk in the cold!

But she continued... the funny thing is as they walk through the neighborhood, Jack still likes to explore trees and she or her husband is stuck at the base of the tree, leash in hand, arm up in the air!!! All the neighbors know them.

I have little direct experience with cats, but doubt that most cats would go for that. I read that the Scottish Fold variety is more likely than most to like being walked.

I was in New Orleans this weekend and spotted a lady with a leashed cat ... I was pretty amazed. But that cat was having a ball, and didn't seem to be bothered by the leash at all. I gather it's like most things ... get the cat accustomed young, you're okay ... attempt at several years old, good luck.

I walk my cat in a harness and leash every summer, but only around the roof of my building. I wouldn't take her out on the streets, she'd be too freaked out. She walks just fine in the harness, though it took her a while to adjust to it, at first.

You sure that is a cat? lol or not photoshopped? Maybe its a cat on xanax?

One of my cats loves the leash outside, but it's not like walking a dog. It's more like I follow if/when/where he wanders. He'll roll around and nibble grass, watch the birds, wander a bit and is pretty chill about the whole thing.

My other cat, well, he is convinced that speed and flailing will help him escape the imminent death that being outdoors will bring.

I had an amazing, beautiful, and very independent Siamese that would have loved taking walks with me. I never thought to leash train him, even though he LOVED escaping every chance he got. My other Siamese would never dream of leaving the house, but the next cat I get with an outgoing personality, I will definitely leash train.

My sister takes one of our cats out in the yard on a leash sometimes, but she doesn't actually walk a lot... I've seen a couple of cats really walking on leashes, though. They had a great time!

Our experience is similar to whiteforest. We take one of our cats out on a leash/harness, and he just likes to meander. This particular cat is pretty high energy, and we find that taking him out for "walks" a few times a week results in less looking for things to get into while he's inside.

To harness train him, we put the harness on him for a few minutes, once a night, for a week. Eventually he got to the point where he didn't try to use the walls, furniture, etc. to pry the harness off. Now, he is so used to putting it on that he knows how to maneuver his head and paws as we put it on.

Disregard what I wrote about Scottish Folds. Wikipedia says that variety has bad medical issues.

I can't say I've ever met a cat I think would go for this. Most of my cats have been indoor/outdoor, so they definitely wouldn't care for it, but a lot of the indoor cats I've met I can't see being too into this, either. I feel like, generally, they would either just be timid and anxious about it, or be so into it all that the leash would just be a huge pain to deal with. I think it would be cool to raise a kitten to be into this in the city, but I think I would just rather do indoor/outdoor cats anyway, so eh.

Our kitty first hated the leash, but she's trapped in our 1,000 sqft condo and gets restless, so after a few really yowly experiences she started to really enjoy the leash. Like others mentioned, "walking" a kitty usually just means letting them experience/smell/wander, although beware the trees, we've gotten tangled a few times. The leash is also really great for long road trips when kitty cannot handle being in a box for 3 hours we let her roam the car, while also having a little control over her.

We have quite a few neighbours whose cats are on the leash. Next door's cat is walked, another a few doors up just likes to sit outside on his leash, guarding the complex (seriously, he's like a meerkat). Where we live raccoons and other wildlife are not unheard of in the city so not many people allow their cats free roam.
Our two don't even have collars and would be dirty protesting if we'd ever try a leash on them.

i think my cat would love this (if she can get used to the harness)! I'm getting her a leash ASAP.

It really depends on the cat's personality. I have 3 cats and only one who is laid back enough to enjoy going somewhere on a leash. My husband and I actually took her on a road trip from TN to Maine and back again by way of Cleveland, OH and she loved every minute of it (except when we had to ride a ferry in Vermont). She got out of the car in her leash and harness and we never had a problem with her. However not all cats should do the same thing. Our other two cats are not the types to enjoy being on the streets in the city and so they stay home where they are very content to watch the world go by from our windows.

Unlike dogs, cats are independent creatures. It is not in their nature to want to be placed in a harness and/or on a leash. Gotta say this seems like an idea driven by human pleasure, not by understanding of the animal's personality.

I've tried this a couple times with a few different cats. I apparently don't have the touch because they let it be well known that this SHOULD not occur again.

One of my two kitties just loves the outside. But as I grew up with outdoor cats and know they have a short lifespan, I would never just let him out. So we do walks. Not in winter, but every day in the spring-summer-fall. We go out and walk around the property. He eats some grass and scratches trees. We look for garter snakes and he digs in leaf piles. He does get frightened if cars come by or someone strange walks up, but I live on a quiet dead end, so this is mostly not a problem. He absolutely loves it and whines to be walked.

My cat almost always escapes when I come home. I learnt that I just need to let him wander for a while and he will turn out quickly at the door (not even for 15 minutes!). I've been thinking of putting him on a leash like this, but he's been afraid of elevators, so I've never even taken him to the laundry room. Not sure if taking him for a walk will be a good idea, but I agree that he might need something to burn off that excess energy. Maybe I'll give leashing a try one day.

My friend's Abyssinian JJ loves to walk/run/hike on the leash. Visit JJ on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jafariunderfoot.

My cat loved to walk on the leash with my dog (a chihuahua poodle mix)... But after she died, he doesn't want to go on walks anymore. However I have also trained him to give "kisses" (which my daughters love) and if you tell him "no claws" he immediately retracts his claws no matter what he's in the middle of doing. Which was wonderful with 2 kids under 2. Thankfully they're bigger now and not as rough with him!! Cats can be trained, it just depends on how intelligent the cat is and how much you want to work with them! All of our animals have been rescues, and the 2 cats we currently have were our fosters before they were eligible for adoption. I don't think breed has a lot to do with it... Perhaps just time spent with them.

I tried training my cat on a leash a few years ago, but neither one of us were very disciplined about it, really. I found a method for it, maybe online- can't remember. It was very specific. 1. Place harness and leash where the cat sleeps- get it used to seeing it, getting it's scent on it. 2. Place harness on kitty, IMMEDIATELY follow with prepared treat, take harness off immediately following. Repeat step 2 3 days. Then progress to leaving it on longer, adding leash, holding the leash, letting kitty out, ALWAYS with treat immediately following. Good luck! I still believe they are little independent hunters (which is why I went soft on the process), but they ARE domesticated animals, right?

We do this for the few couple of years with each of our cats. Even though we live in the suburbs, we don't allow them out alone until they've been on a leash and learn about dogs, cars, and other hazards. The time on the leash lets them also learn the lay of the land, making it easier to find their way home. After that, they get to go free, but only during day light.

few=first.

When I first got my cat I tried to take her to the beach in Chicago on a leash and it was a horrible experience. She was terrified and was completely traumatized. It was as if I had unexpectedly taken her to the moon because everything was so foreign to her.

But she was already 6 years old when I got her so she was pretty set in her ways. And I don't think she had been outside in the grass before.

If I had a kitten I would definitely leash train it though.

it's not common, but i've seen this in toronto as well.

if the cat is comfortable and likes it, then sure go for it!

but i know that with my two kitties, they cannot stand anything contraption like a harness, let alone a collar.

calm as a cucumber?

I tried this with a previous cat when I was a teenager. What I mostly remember is spending an hour trying to pry a (terrified? excited?) cat from the top of an evergreen. In retrospect, I should have known, given what she'd done to our Christmas tree that year...

I tried to leash train my cat, but I found that she wanted to duck under bushes too often. In the end, we ended up walking off-leash. I guess she trained me in some ways but she runs ahead and I keep walking at a constant pace. Then she will find something that interests her and I will walk past her. If she wants me to stop she will meow constantly and otherwise she will run past me again. If a dog is around she runs to me and I pick her up, and I trained her not to go on the road unless I am holding her.

The road was the hard part. Everything else she wanted by herself. I lived in an apartment on a major road, but we walked on quieter streets behind our house. It took her a long time to get what the road was, especially in the winter.

I'm sure before leash laws turned it into the norm, people thought leasing dogs was weird and borderline abusive. (I'm sure there were plenty of "dogs need their freedom! Their personalities won't work with this!" type comments.)

Now that many animal experts are pushing for indoor only cats because of the greatly increased lifespan for the cat and the steep drop in death of songbirds/endangered local fauna, I expect leashed cats will slowly rise in popularity. What's more "cruel" to a cat, leash training or never letting it outside the small confines of a house or apartment for its entire life?

The photo that accompanies this post looks like it's from the NY Times video that ran yesterday: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/12/28/garden/100000001243847/the-cat-walk.html?ref=garden

The cat's owner and an animal behaviorist explain the reason for doing this and also how long it took to train the cat to tolerate a leash. I used a leash with an outdoor cat once, when he was in poor health and I didn't want to let him run free. He was so miserable being kept indoors, I thought the leash was a decent compromise. It took him a while to get used to it, and as soon as he was feeling better he discovered how to wriggle out of the harness, no matter how much I tightened it! Then I knew it was time to put the leash away.

We take our cat out randomly to meander on moon lite outings. She is shy so between foot traffic, buses and trucks daytime is to stressful. Plus our Boston Terrier gets really excited when we all go out.

After seeing a goat on a leash, cats on a leash seems so very ordinary.

I feel like it would be easier/quicker to invest in a dog.

Y'all realize the majority of cat owners have allowed their cats to train them right?

urban cats may like this. country cats do not :)

I had a cat when I was young who would do this only because he was so nosy he just had to be in the know and wanted to be wherever we were. He was really good in the car too; we would take him upstate to our vacation house and he didn't even need a carrier. It totally depends on the cat's personality. Unlike dogs, they dont respond well to commands and only do what they WANT to do.

Re your fear of crossing the line into "crazy cat lady" territory -- when I was single and in my 30s, I had two cats, and was called a crazy cat lady then, simply because ... well, I had two cats. Yet people who own several dogs, fish, birds or whatever are spared that kind of phrase. I decided then that anyone who called me a crazy cat lady for simply giving animals a decent life wasn't someone worth caring about. If you cat likes the leash, you should take him for a walk. (Now, walking him on a leash after dressing him in a cute little outfit is another story.)

I cannot imagine doing this with a cat, and have never seen it. I am surprised by the number of responses, but hey, I don't really live in a city.

Hahaha, my cat would not stand for that.

I had a leased trained cat. He also stuck his head out the car window like a dog, and rode around on my hip. The best cat ever.

I was sat at an outdoor cafe in Rome once and a guy cycled past on a bicycle with a cat perched on his shoulder. He got off and started pushing the bike and the cat just stayed there, quite happily.

When I was a teenager I went to Kings Cross Station in London and was stunned to see a beautiful siamese cat draped across the shoulders of a very nonchelant lady. I can't remember if there was a leash involved. And another time on the grass outside Euston Station I saw another siamese on a leash trying to hunt the local pidgeons.

We have a very mellow 13 yr. old cat that we just took camping with us over the holidays. She has a harness and walks around on a leash. We got her out at rest stops and she'd rub around us and purr. In the desert in the tent we would watch the sun rise together. She really loved it but I think she's pretty unusual!

The crazy cat lady comments remind me of a comic in which a lady surrounded by her cats says, "Any one who has 16 or more cats has emotional problems." So I had to count and, of course, around the lady are 15 cats.

I've tried this with my kitty Felix and he tolerates it at best. He just stays super low to the ground and I have to practically drag him to go anywhere ... either that or he wants to go where I can't - inside bushes, under parked cars, through fences.

He's forever an indoor cat ... raised as a therapy cat in a nursing home, he has no claws and is very easy-going and trusting. His only hope of outside time is on a leash. Maybe with more practice ....

You're all nuts. Seriously. Leashing cats? Training them to avoid cars and dogs? Wtf?!! In the UK people don't tend to get cats when they live in apartments. It's cruel. Keeping cats inside, even when you live in a house in the suburbs. Also cruel. Just because they live a bit longer? What kind of life is that for an inquisitive animal? We've always just kept them in the house for the first 6 weeks, then put in a cat door and let them come and go as they please. And anyone who de-claws a cat to make it more people friendly should be locked up. This is the most ridiculous post I have ever read in my life.

We made the mistake of putting a harness/leash on our cat once to "let her roam" the patio (we were in an apartment on the bottom floor). Within 3 seconds she somehow entangled herself and all the patio furniture and the chair we had attached the leash to in our living room into a mess so large it took us about an hour to untangle it all. It looked like something out of a cartoon. Now we live in a house with a gated courtyard and backyard and she escapes every chance she gets just to roll in the dirt. We take her outside supervised sometimes so she can eat grass or roll in the dirt or just explore. Otherwise she is perfectly content taunting the dogs from places they can not reach and stealing their toys from them.

My sister had a cat that she leash trained. She started when he was a kitten. It was nice to be able to take him outside and walk him on nice days. I think it is more fun to take a cat for a walk, because it's not like a dog where you have to walk them. It's more for fun. I've always wanted to do it, but our cats since were adopted as adults. We tried to put them on leashes, but one would hyperventilate, and the other two would be gone, leaving an empty harness at the end of the leash :( Maybe when we are able to get a kitten, we will do it again.

There is a higher likelihood of getting a "trainable" cat with Asian breeds, such as Bengals, Siamese, Abyssinians, etc. They are known for their intelligence and outgoing personalities. The leash and harness wouldn't be an option if my Bengal cat wasn't so curious and eager for adventure. I live in the city with an incredibly high-energy breed of cat so we've learned to compromise with each other.

We treat our walks as conversations: sometimes she chooses the direction, and other times I choose it by using gentle and insistent (and probably annoying) pressure on the leash. I also use a rewarding tone of voice to signal my approval of her positive behavior.

Just treating the whole interaction as a conversation and practicing this regularly has turned her into a really reliable walking partner.

Keep in mind that the only way a cat can successfully walk outdoors on a leash is if the owner has spent a lot of time, energy and attention with the cat. I'd say that, if you see a cat happily walking on a leash, you can be pretty sure that he has an excellent bond with his owner, and that he is pretty sound of mind. That sounds like a pretty good life, to me.

I tried this once on my cat when she was about 5 years old and she didn't go for it at all. She just plopped down on the ground and when I pulled on the leash, she let me know she wasn't about to start walking around with me. I think cats are pissed when things are on them. They are not used to it at all.

On the other hand, I've gone outside with my cat in my arms and talked to my neighbor for about an hour and she didn't move while I held her. She didn't growl once. I held her under her belly, like a puppet and I've held her like that since she was a kitten and she never fights me.

I think its all about what your cat is accustomed to.

You can leash train rabbits, too.

I adopted a cat whose foster mom let her outside on a leash. She'd sit on the patio and let the cat sniff around. They never did get the hang of walking, though, and I decided not to pursue it. Rachel Kitty was perfectly happy sniffing everything, then finding a sunny spot and plopping down, so I'd just find a sunny spot myself and sit with a cup of coffee.

I also taught Rachel to sit on command. (hint: holding a treat up above the cat's nose works better than pressing down on its haunches) She was an odd cat. I miss her.

The whole "hurf durf I let it go outside unsupervised the NATURAL way" is such an irresponsible, disgusting cop out.

My MIL and FIL let their cats get battered, diseased, poisoned, and killed by cats, dogs, cars, and neighbors. They loved their cats, yet said that was natural, even God's will! My husband and I had bad fights with them to take their cats in ourselves to have them altered. Later, when their cats were dying prematurely we'd have to take them in to be euthanized by the vet. Their suffering was unnecessary and was due to their owners being ignorant and negligent. They thought vet care for pets was foolish. They were good people but had kept habits from when they were poor kids in the country. Toward the end of their lives my MIL and FIL agreed with my husband and me that pets are helpless in this artificial environment and are our responsibility to keep healthy for life.

I leash trained my cat when she was a kitten. She didn't like it, but we lived in the city and the very thought of her running around freely scared me to death. I thought about all the things that could hurt her and the very idea that she might never come home one day made me too sad to really care that she didn't like being on a leash. So I took her for walks and we also leashed her on our open balcony (she was always supervised). She lived that way until she was 18 (but by then, we had moved to the country and she was such a well-behaved elderly cat, she mostly just sat on the deck and didn't need her leash anymore).

Now that I'm cat-free, I've started to really hate the cats in my neighbourhood because of their free-roaming. They're digging in my planters and flower beds and creating a terrible mess. And if you've ever been weeding and accidentally touched cat poop, then you know how disgusting and unsanitary it is. So now I really don't understand the difference between having your dogs leashed and having your cat leashed. Leashing your cats shows your neighbours the same courtesy as you would do if you owned a dog instead. There are also city bylaws regarding unwanted cats on properties (in my city at least) and judging by what I heard from the animal shelter, unwanted, wandering cats is a serious problem despite the bylaw (they were running out of cat traps).

I think that being a responsible pet owner means taking care and protecting your pet from any possible dangers it might encounter (including fed up, cat-trap possessing neighbours), so leashing a cat seems to me to be the most logical thing to do. You wouldn't let your dog freely run about your neighbourhood even if he was a "free spirit with an inquisitive mind." So I think that if your cat is really a part of your family, you should treat it as such.

I have never had a cat, so I cannot comment from that perspective.
But, as a dog owner, I have to say that I am allergic to all cat owners who let their cats roam the neighbourhood without any thought to the consequences. I have a fenced in yard (I had to put the fence in when I purchased my current house, and it is not an insignificant amount of money) and I object to strange cats getting into my yard whenever they wish.
If I let my dogs out when there is a cat in the yard (not that I would do it on purpose but I cannot see everything from the back door) all hell would break loose. The cat may end up being torn to pieces (and then *I* would have to clean up the mess). Worse yet, my dogs may get seriously injured in the process - those kitty claws can do serious damage.

In my previous house (a huge yard with many mature trees) a cat from the house two houses down from me was always getting in my yard. I voiced my concerns with the cat's owners and of course they continued to let the cat roam. Eventually, the day came when the cat was in the yard when I let my dogs out and of course they immediately took after the cat (I cannot really blame them, they are greyhounds and it's their instinct). One of the dogs suffered a leg injury, it was some soft tissue trauma and it took a while to heal. I coughed up close to $400 in vet expenses. I told the cat owners about this and of course I never saw of a penny from them.
I wish cat people were more responsible.

People tend to be cynical about this but it is an excellent option for (responsible) people who keep their cats indoors. The big mistake made is that people try to do it with no training. Get the cat used to the harness inside the house first. Do it gradually. And don't expect to walk them like you would a dog. Let them go where they want, and pick them up, bring them back to your yard if they go to an unsafe place.

And yes, it does depend a bit on personality. I work hard to adopt cats who are mellow, so it works.

I paid nearly 10K for a 6' privacy fence. It keeps my dogs in, but repeatedly they've almost caught cats that hunt in my back garden. I comply with dog local code, and wish my neighbors would do the same for their dogs and cats. We were driving home slowly on our street one night many years ago. A cat was chasing a rat across the street and never saw our car. It dove under our tires. Stopping in time was impossible. The cat bled from nose and mouth, convulsed twice, and died within three minutes. The cat had no collar and we didn't recognize it. We decided to leave its body on the grass by the road. We thought that if it were ours then we'd rather find its body than keep searching and worrying. My husband was sobbing, and we still grieve that we hit it, although I feel its owners are responsible for its death. They probably hated us and continued to let their remaining cats roam out of magical thinking.

We have a Siberian (1yr. 9 months.) and just went on a 3 mile hike in the woods with her - she walked one quarter to one half of it. We carried her in a camping backpack for the other portion. (She's big enough to look out.)
She stayed on the trail & climbed on rocks up a little waterfall - the water didn't bother her.
We specifically tried to find a site that didn't allow dogs, but all the trails within a reasonable distance did. (All the dogs we encountered on our walk were off leash. "Oh, its not a problem, he's a nice dog" - said an owner of a dog with a choke collar.) Despite the dogs, we just picked up our cat and she was fine.
We had been working up to this since we received out cat at 3 months old. Baby steps: get her used to the harness, then the leash, walk around the halls of our loft, then the complex. We would carry her in the back pack around buckhead working up to an hour.
She was a little distracted with people we would encounter on walks, so walking out in a national park was perfect. Little distractions and lots of logs, rocks, and roots to explore.

When I was in high school we would occasionally use a leash and harness on our older, mellow, female cat. She had previously been a barn cat and was wiser about the outside world than our other kitties. While she tolerated the leash and harness, if we were too insistent on which direction we wanted to go she'd flop on her side and refuse to move at all. It was just better for us and her to let her wander around and nibble on grass at her own pace. We introduced her to the harness when she was almost 14 or 15, and though she took to it alright, I imagine it would have been easier and seemed more natural if we'd tried it earlier and used it more consistently.

I find the comment by hopperodyssey a little offensive. By keeping my cats inside (a large house) they avoid being attacked by other animals, infections, parasites and diseases. They curl up on my heating blanket in the winter and eat the best possible food. I take them for walks in the backyard on a leash (more like a vest) and they love it. With an agressive pitbull across the street, why would I risk anything and let them stay outside all the time? I'm sure if they could speak they'd thank me for the food, safety, warmth, and opportunity to go outside safely as well.

I second that hopperodyssey's comment was offensive. Not only is it safer for the cats inside, but safer for the neighborhood wildlife. I love kitties but they are all little sociopaths who kill things just because they can. I have seen well fed pet cats mutilate small critters to "hunt & play" with them, and ultimately not eat them. I live near wetlands and people who let their cats roam are completely irresponsible and locally devastating. The poor cats pay with their lives for their owners' ignorance, not only are there the usual problems, big dogs, busy roads, bad children, poison, diseases and pests but there are coyotes as well; seems like twice a week a new "lost" poster goes up. Gee I wonder why.

My cat was a rescue, a former outdoor cat but now lives comfortably inside, healthier than ever. He still loves his outdoors and comes running when he hears his leash. Ultimately I think he gets the best of both worlds without all the associated risks involved with letting him to his own devilish devices.

Yes I'd consider it, I think some outdoor access can be healthy for them, but I have the space to build an enclosed cat patio so I'm heading in that direction. Mine isn't an issue of leash training, it's about the hawks swooping down from the neighboring state park (they've even swooped down on my head), so a leash just isn't enough. The hawks have carried off small dogs from neighboring yards and I just won't risk it with my animals. So while I'm planning the cat patio, which will actually be an indoor/outdoor conservatory with live plants (a tree he can climb, grass, the catmint he likes to roll around in), I've built a temporary window-to-window runway so he can enjoy a little fresh air and sunshine. I used to have indoor/outdoor cats but, after a neighbor's cat killed two, they became indoor only and I saw a rebound in the local bird population (for which I'm grateful). Now indoor or indoor-enclosed is it for me from now on.

@Cristina, It's cultural. In the country, a cat seems just a disposable, replaceable mouser. A farmer has to consider all non-human animals as tools for profit when his business is livestock bred for slaughter. If a farmer got sentimental about animals then he'd go broke. That would seem to a farmer as silly as an office worker giving TLC to a stapler or photocopier would seem to us. That's why they drown kittens instead of altering their cats. That doesn't mean that country people are cruel as much as that my suburban life is sheltered. I'll even admit my dogs are substitutes in some ways for the kids I never had. I'd do as you do if I were medically able to have cats. Legal code is just the minimum required to avoid charges. The owner of a pet should want to provide more than subsistence care.

@hopperodyssey, while I agree with your declawing statement, we're not nuts - there's a huge difference between just 'having' pets and truly caring for them.

Excuse me? Letting your pet go outside = not caring for it? What planet do you people live on? Do you send your kids to school in plastic bubbles so the germs and parasites can't get them either? How stupid do you think your animals are? And how self-centred are you to think that a longer life equals a better one. Do you ever see a cat hanging round the moment it feels threatened? Why the paranoia? Jees, neuter it, vacinate it, collar it (with a bell), put in a cat door and let it have some independence. That is a happy cat.

@Hopperodyssey, they're right. I agree with you about declawing, but I was a veterinary nurse for 8 years and letting cats outdoors is irresponsible. Of course cats are not stupid. However, they are not wild animals. Cats were domesticated between 4,000 and 7,000 years ago. They have evolved since their african wildcat ancestors roamed free. Domestic cats today do not have the proper immune system to protect them from common feline diseases. They have no adaptations to help them understand the danger of speeding cars and 4 tons of metal crushing them. They will drink antifreeze right off the road. You can respect your cat while keeping them indoors - they will live long, healthy lives, still chase rodents (we get them in our house all the time) and you can appeal to their predatory nature by being creative. AND they can still be walked outdoors or given an enclosed space. Isn't that the most respectful way to treat them? :)

A few people seem to indicate that letting cats be leashed is unsafe because they try to break free or they will be eaten by hawks. We do realize that the post is about walking your cat, NOT tying them up outside, right? That is NOT SAFE.

Agreed, tethering a cat would be bad. Also agreed, declawing is mutilation that endangers the cat because it can't understand that its instinctive self-defense reflexes to scratch back, or to climb up out of danger, no longer work. Hopperodyssey, you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

Also agreed, if you adopt a cat that already was declawed then, other than leashed walks, it must stay indoors for its own safety.

Miamis Elaine so true about declawing. It also endangers the cat other ways. The (non-medically necessary) surgery removes not only the claw, but also the first knuckle. This causes cats to do "knuckle walking" which is painful and leads to arthritis. Try walking with the weight on your toes to get an idea. Very bad. Also cats need their claws to feel safe -- otherwise their only defense is biting. They also develop habits such as not using the litterbox. Honestly, if people don't want a pet that claws, don't buy a cat.

@EMMI, you might want to read-read, your comment was way off-base on the hawk reference.

@Hopperodyssey, apparently you haven't had the outdoor or indoor/outdoor cat experiences some of us have had, so either consider yourself lucky - or - be more observant for your cats sake?

I have two bengal cats who both walk on leashes, now we go on daily walks with both cats and our great dane puppy! It is great if you are accustomed to allowing your animals outdoors but don't live somewhere you can do that then leash training early on is a great alternative!

Rucy, which part of the comment is inaccurate? Have you heard of cats being eaten by hawks while an owner is leash walking them? My point was that only cats who are tied up would be at risk, and obviously they should never be tied up in the first place.

This story may have been on CNN. Last year in the US a chihuahua being walked on a leash by his man one winter night was grabbed by a swooping owl that tried to fly away with it. The man held onto the leash, the winter vest the dog wore kept the talons from piercing the dog's heart and lungs, and the owl gave up and dropped the dog. The dog recovered except for an understandable fear of going outdoors. Strange but true?

PS This is a link to a shortened version of the story:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/19/illinois.dog.attacked/index.html?iref=allsearch

Thanks, Miamis Elaine. I appreciate the link. It was a dog and not a cat, so I wonder about a few things: one, was it one of those long leashes that goes further and further (they're horribly popular these days), at that point the dog may as well be alone. Second, owls will attack to protect their nests; so I wonder if that was a factor. Also, no mention of the owl species? Most only come out at night. The story is a bit odd, if you ask me. Obviously the news crews were not there when it happened, and (as a wildlife rehabber) I've seen people say they have an injured hawk when what they really have is a crow.

Yes, the whole story may be fictional. Even if true, the incident was so rare as to be considered news. Either way, its ending would have been very sad if the chihuahua hadn't been leashed.

P.S. I just googled "chihuahua taken by owl." From the number and variety of hits, I now wonder whether the story was fictional or even that unusual. Happily, Miami owls are tiny, and prefer insects and lizards. Regardless, I agree that, other than during leashed walks, cats are better off being kept indoors. I hear the easiest way is to raise them indoors from the beginning so they won't feel deprived because they know nothing else.

Elaine, yes who knows with the media, sigh. Absolutely best to keep cats indoors and saves tons of money on vet bills! People don't need to have a kitten, adopting an adult cat from a shelter can work if the cat is A. Mellow in personality (or at least not hyper) and B. has been kept indoors previously. They are quite adaptable! :)

my aunt did this to her cat. she would put the leash around a patio chair next to the pool and the cat would just sun bathe while she swam laps.

my cat would NEVER allow this. but i wish she would...

My cats love walking on leashes!

I would. If I wanted her to hate me. A lot.

Cats can definitely be trained, and not just special breeds. I adopted one almost-feral cat right off the street, and he practically tells me what tricks he wants to learn. I don't even have to give him treats-- he will do tricks just for a chin scratch (and frankly, he's a little too treat-focused, so if I have treats, all he does is attempt to get them away from me. Although he will "sit" for treats). Currently, he knows "come" and "get down," fetches, puts his paws on my knees on command, and will fall over when I make my finger into a gun and say "bang." I'm pretty sure he could get used to a leash if I were more consistent.

People who do advanced training with dogs will recognize why cat training so often doesn't work. People free-feed their cats, which doesn't reinforce the bond (human = food provider) that makes a cat want to please you. Or people praise and reward cats randomly (here, cat just sitting there; have some treats) instead of rewarding specific behavior with praise and withholding it during bad behavior. Or they just never socialize with their cats (most cats are not really loners; even feral cats aggregate in colonies) and then wonder why they're so crazy.