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Gorgar
Dec 2, 2012

Cat furniture right by the computer desk is a really good thing. It would be good to have another option near a window but a bit more distant, because cats are moody things and sometimes they want to be alone, or wherever the sun is. Options are good.

If you can, see what kinds of toys your cat likes when you are at the shelter getting to know him or her. It seems to vary. I've had pretty good luck with fabric-rope-onna-stick and Yeeow! catnip toys. Of mine, one goes mad for bouncy foam balls to chase and bat, one likes little furry floofball things, and one prefers sparkle balls, but they all agree on chasing fabric rope and my catnip toys have some impressive teethmarks in them from all three. Buy lots of toys. Leave a cardboard box around if the cat likes that.

I don't really like big pet stores for food. So much of what they carry is crap, so I'd rather support an independent store that has a better variety of the better foods. I settled on getting a big bag of Taste of the Wild dry from a local shop, but getting cases of Wellness in 12 oz cans from Amazon because I haven't found a store that stocks the big cans. My last two cats lived to 17 and 19 years old or so on Iams dry and Friskies wet, neither of which are recommended, so don't feel like using up the food you have is going to murder your cat.

Also, cheers for adopting an adult.

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Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Gorgar posted:

Cat furniture right by the computer desk is a really good thing. It would be good to have another option near a window but a bit more distant, because cats are moody things and sometimes they want to be alone, or wherever the sun is. Options are good.

There's another window in my apartment's living room, on the other side of the wall from my bedroom where I keep the computer desk. When I cat-sat my parents' cat for a couple of weeks, he mostly just curled up on the bed and watched me.

quote:

If you can, see what kinds of toys your cat likes when you are at the shelter getting to know him or her. It seems to vary. I've had pretty good luck with fabric-rope-onna-stick and Yeeow! catnip toys. Of mine, one goes mad for bouncy foam balls to chase and bat, one likes little furry floofball things, and one prefers sparkle balls, but they all agree on chasing fabric rope and my catnip toys have some impressive teethmarks in them from all three. Buy lots of toys. Leave a cardboard box around if the cat likes that.

Got a couple of cardboard boxes and an empty shoebox just in case. :)

quote:

I don't really like big pet stores for food. So much of what they carry is crap, so I'd rather support an independent store that has a better variety of the better foods. I settled on getting a big bag of Taste of the Wild dry from a local shop, but getting cases of Wellness in 12 oz cans from Amazon because I haven't found a store that stocks the big cans. My last two cats lived to 17 and 19 years old or so on Iams dry and Friskies wet, neither of which are recommended, so don't feel like using up the food you have is going to murder your cat.

Noted, I'll give the pet store a look, for toys if nothing else, and bring a checklist of good pet food brands that the nutrition thread recommends.

quote:

Also, cheers for adopting an adult.

For me, it's mostly down to energy levels. I'm fairly sedate, and work a 40-a-week job that includes one ten-hour day a week. Kittens are cute, but holy hell I do not have the time or energy for it, even if I were to get two of the adorable little bastards. An adult cat will also hopefully be less inclined to mess with power cords.


Thank you all for the feedback. :) I'm not getting a cat for another couple of months, not until my lease comes up for renewal, so I'm doing my homework now.

Deteriorata
Feb 6, 2005

Caring for a cat is not that complicated. Relax. You're way over-thinking this.

Submarine Sandpaper
May 27, 2007


Cythereal posted:

* My family gave me several cans of Fancy Feast chicken feast in gravy flavor and Friskies Plus with turkey and giblets in gravy flavor wet cat food for Christmas, as they know I've been planning for this. However, from looking at the pet nutrition thread I see these are not well regarded brands. There is a Petco near my apartment - am I likely to find good quality cat food there, or do I need to look elsewhere? I do intend to ask the animal shelter staff, if I find a cat that suits me (and I it, knowing cats), if the cat is known to prefer wet or dry food, and how often it should be fed.
Don't worry about that. If the cat will eat wet go through that stock first then improve the quality later if needed. Any wet food will be better than what a non-special needs cat will receive at a shelter.

Arriviste
Sep 10, 2010

Gather. Grok. Create.




Now pick up what you can
and run.
The cat trees and store-bought toys will look beautiful as your cat gleefully spazzes out with a leaf that just blew in, a milk jug ring pilfered out of the trash, or a stolen ponytail holder atop whatever article of clothing you have that attracts the most cat hair.

(Congrats on your pending kitty.)

Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Deteriorata posted:

Caring for a cat is not that complicated. Relax. You're way over-thinking this.

I figured, I just wanted to make sure there was nothing obvious I had overlooked as a prospective first-time independent pet owner.

LeafyGreens
May 9, 2009

the elegant cephalopod

Soo, I'm looking into getting another kitty as a friend for my 6 month old girl cat who is a complete spaz and super playful. Any recommendations on the kind of cat I could get that would be likely to get on with her? I was thinking of a (neutered) boy. I'm also wondering whether or not age matters? Or is it really just a case of getting another one that can live with other cats and hoping they get on?

khy
Aug 15, 2005

Cats like to play videogames too. But some assholes insist on never giving them a turn with the keyboard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lxdYVIpM6U

Rat Patrol
Feb 15, 2008

kill kill kill kill
kill me now

Octolady posted:

Soo, I'm looking into getting another kitty as a friend for my 6 month old girl cat who is a complete spaz and super playful. Any recommendations on the kind of cat I could get that would be likely to get on with her? I was thinking of a (neutered) boy. I'm also wondering whether or not age matters? Or is it really just a case of getting another one that can live with other cats and hoping they get on?

When I got a second cat, the people at the shelter recommended the new cat be younger if possible, smaller if possible, and of the opposite sex to make getting along easier (I guess boy/girl combinations get along better on average). With your cat being as young as she is though, I feel like adjustment won't be so hard for her, so mostly I'd try to pick out another young cat that won't get irritated with her and will match her energy level.

Real hurthling!
Sep 11, 2001




Huntersoninski posted:

When I got a second cat, the people at the shelter recommended the new cat be younger if possible, smaller if possible, and of the opposite sex to make getting along easier (I guess boy/girl combinations get along better on average). With your cat being as young as she is though, I feel like adjustment won't be so hard for her, so mostly I'd try to pick out another young cat that won't get irritated with her and will match her energy level.

My boy and girl do not get along that well even 10 years after meeting (they met as adults). I don't think sex matters as much as age

Dienes
Nov 4, 2009

dee
doot doot dee
doot doot doot
doot doot dee
dee doot doot
doot doot dee
dee doot doot


College Slice

Real hurthling! posted:

My boy and girl do not get along that well even 10 years after meeting (they met as adults). I don't think sex matters as much as age

Yeah. Khan will accept kittens of any gender but wants nothing to do with adult female cats.

Rat Patrol
Feb 15, 2008

kill kill kill kill
kill me now
The lady at the shelter did say "on average." She said boy/girl was best, boy/boy next best, and girl/girl riskiest.

This site mentions a vague study that suggested this pairing (on average):

http://www.webvet.com/main/2009/11/04/multiple-cat-households

And several other sites make the same suggestion. I'm guessing that's where my shelter got it too. Of course it'll depend on the cats' personalities most of all, but to add another anecdote, ozma adjusted to pizza brother pretty quickly v :v: v

LeafyGreens
May 9, 2009

the elegant cephalopod

I'll try to get a younger or similarly aged boy then! Even if they just tolerate each other that's fine with me but it'd be nice if they could play. Thanks guys

ps. pizza brother is the best cat name

Zaftig
Jan 21, 2008

It's infectious
I got my cat spayed today. They told me to keep her in the bathroom with the lights off when we got home, and she was fine while I was with her, but freaked out the second I tried to close her in there. I know the advice is to keep them in a quiet, dark room after spaying, but I live in a studio alone so my options are pretty limited there. I have an e-collar on her since she was licking at the wound a little and I looked at aftercare information that included a picture of intestines falling out of an open wound so I'm freaking out a bit.

Basically, should I keep it on her all the time except to eat? When I'm sleeping? When I'm at work? How long? Should I just lock myself in the bathroom with her for the night? Am I being overly worried?

supermikhail
Nov 17, 2012


"It's video games, Scully."
Video games?"
"He enlists the help of strangers to make his perfect video game. When he gets bored of an idea, he murders them and moves on to the next, learning nothing in the process."
"Hmm... interesting."
When I got my girl spayed, back in the '00s, they basically wrapped her in one huge bandage, which, aside from other things, prevented vigorous movement, I reckon. They don't do things like that no more?

Edit: And on a different note! My cat keeps destroying her grass. I've put it on a different table, but she has finally figured it out. She has also learned that I don't like it when she goes there (which is actually a little bit more nuanced on my part), and sneaks up there while I'm away, to jump back down as soon as I enter. :( There's gotta be some kind of solution, like a mini hothouse, but I have no idea where to get plastic of those dimensions, if DIY, or where to get a readymade thing. Or in fact what a readymade thing would be called. (Cause from Googling it's not an actual "mini hothouse" that I want.)

supermikhail fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Jan 11, 2015

END OF AN ERROR
May 16, 2003

IT'S LEGO, not Legos. Heh


I never had to lock either of my girls in a dark bathroom? I tried keeping a cone on them, but they weren't the stiff kind, so they kept folding back on them and they would trip going down the stairs and fall :(

I just always kept them in the same room as me and if I saw them going near their staples I would make them stop.

Zaftig
Jan 21, 2008

It's infectious
Thanks! She got the collar off while I stepped out for a bit, so I left it off and watched her like a hawk. She ended up trying to lick again, so I put the collar on again (tighter this time) and she's miserable but safe. I called my mother and she laughed at me for turning into her, so I can probably tone it down on the whole thinking-my-cat-will-die thing.

Araenna
Dec 27, 2012




Lipstick Apathy
I was lucky, my cat licked her incision once, decided it tasted bad or something, and didn't touch it again. I actually left her home alone the day after without a collar on, because she just had no interest in them at all. Dog also had no interest, because she had her hosed up back dewclaws removed at the same time, and wanted to eat her feets instead.

HelloSailorSign
Jan 27, 2011

I just can't tell which cat will leave their incision alone and which one will chew at it in the middle of the night, making very bad things happen, so every cat gets an e-collar and the recommendation is always to keep the drat thing on regardless of how pitiful the cat looks.

TollTheHounds
Mar 23, 2006

He died for your sins...

Zaftig posted:

I got my cat spayed today. They told me to keep her in the bathroom with the lights off when we got home, and she was fine while I was with her, but freaked out the second I tried to close her in there. I know the advice is to keep them in a quiet, dark room after spaying, but I live in a studio alone so my options are pretty limited there. I have an e-collar on her since she was licking at the wound a little and I looked at aftercare information that included a picture of intestines falling out of an open wound so I'm freaking out a bit.

Basically, should I keep it on her all the time except to eat? When I'm sleeping? When I'm at work? How long? Should I just lock myself in the bathroom with her for the night? Am I being overly worried?

Regardless of what surgery has been done, the best thing you can possibly do is leave the collar on at ALL times, 24/7. It sucks for the cat ( one of ours would literally refuse to eat with it on ), and it sucks for you because you feel bad, but what sucks more is them tearing the stitches, getting an infection, or...intestines falling out, I guess. Of course the reality is I really just feel bad so will give "supervised" no-collar time, take it off only for short periods of time where you are watching the entire time - not distracted watching (leaving it off while you watch tv or read or whatever ), I mean that is ALL you are doing. Wait for them to eat, drink, maybe clean themselves everywhere BUT their incision, then put it back on.

The worst case scenario if they mess up their stitches is pretty drat bad, and if you go into the vet and they're like "what happened?" and you say "well, I ignored your professional medical opinion because I felt bad for my cat, so now here we are" you have no one but yourself to blame. I know that sounds alarmist but I think it's important to point out that really, you should try to do what the vet recommends as best you can.

In practice, throughout our various surgeries, I can only be a hardass about it for the first few days ( usually the vet says to keep the collar on for 10 days/2 weeks ). After that "supervised" no-collar time turns into "It's PROBABLY going to be fine if we leave the collar off for a few hours while we go out" to "Well it's been fine so far so might as well leave it off entirely and see what happens".

TollTheHounds fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Jan 11, 2015

hoobajoo
Jun 2, 2004

Most cats won't lick their incision until it comes out, that's more of a dog thing to lick that heavily. That said, a few will, and some doctors might also have done a shoddy stitch job, so I leave the collar on for 4-5 days to let the skin heal a bit, then do a supervised no-collar day and if that looks good, it stays off.

The Hausu Usher
Feb 9, 2010

:spooky:
Screaming is the only useful thing that we can do.

We were told by the vet that if our cat is spayed whilst she's in heat then she could get "trapped in heat", which we didn't think much of at the time because when we booked her op (for tomorrow) it felt a long way off for our wee kitten to worry about that stuff - but ohshit is she not just doing the frog stance and crying like poo poo for the first time today and now we're freaking out on whether to take her to get spayed tomorrow or not. The internet doesn't actually say much about it, I'm trying to insist we go for it but the idea of pushing for it and then her being trapped in heat is not a very nice one.

END OF AN ERROR
May 16, 2003

IT'S LEGO, not Legos. Heh


BisonDollah posted:

We were told by the vet that if our cat is spayed whilst she's in heat then she could get "trapped in heat", which we didn't think much of at the time because when we booked her op (for tomorrow) it felt a long way off for our wee kitten to worry about that stuff - but ohshit is she not just doing the frog stance and crying like poo poo for the first time today and now we're freaking out on whether to take her to get spayed tomorrow or not. The internet doesn't actually say much about it, I'm trying to insist we go for it but the idea of pushing for it and then her being trapped in heat is not a very nice one.

My vet didn't say anything about that, they just charged me a few bucks extra for the one in heat. She's not stuck in heat loop mode or anything, so I dunno.

hoobajoo
Jun 2, 2004

BisonDollah posted:

We were told by the vet that if our cat is spayed whilst she's in heat then she could get "trapped in heat", which we didn't think much of at the time because when we booked her op (for tomorrow) it felt a long way off for our wee kitten to worry about that stuff - but ohshit is she not just doing the frog stance and crying like poo poo for the first time today and now we're freaking out on whether to take her to get spayed tomorrow or not. The internet doesn't actually say much about it, I'm trying to insist we go for it but the idea of pushing for it and then her being trapped in heat is not a very nice one.

Call your vet and get their opinion on how she's acting. Also, how old is she? It's safe to spay kittens a fair bit before they'd be old enough to go into heat, I don't know why a vet would have you wait that long.

The Hausu Usher
Feb 9, 2010

:spooky:
Screaming is the only useful thing that we can do.

hoobajoo posted:

Call your vet and get their opinion on how she's acting. Also, how old is she? It's safe to spay kittens a fair bit before they'd be old enough to go into heat, I don't know why a vet would have you wait that long.

She's 6 months old, estimated - it's almost perfect timing for the spaying, just 24 hours out and we might never have seen her throw her crotch in our faces. We'll be taking her in at 9am tomorrow and getting an opinion before letting her near the surgery table.

hoobajoo
Jun 2, 2004

BisonDollah posted:

She's 6 months old, estimated - it's almost perfect timing for the spaying, just 24 hours out and we might never have seen her throw her crotch in our faces. We'll be taking her in at 9am tomorrow and getting an opinion before letting her near the surgery table.

Just fyi, the best time to spay is around 10 weeks old.

The Hausu Usher
Feb 9, 2010

:spooky:
Screaming is the only useful thing that we can do.

hoobajoo posted:

Just fyi, the best time to spay is around 10 weeks old.

Ah, the vet advised 6-7 months. Maybe the culture is different in the UK or something? I think I'd be scared of her getting an op at that size, not based on anything other than my squeamishness.

hoobajoo
Jun 2, 2004

BisonDollah posted:

Ah, the vet advised 6-7 months. Maybe the culture is different in the UK or something? I think I'd be scared of her getting an op at that size, not based on anything other than my squeamishness.

That's weirdly old, I don't know why that was the recommendation. Young kittens heal quicker, so it's actually a little easier on her, and it doesn't run the risk of overlapping with a heat. I'm in the USA, maybe there is some weird cultural difference, but I can't think of a benefit to waiting that long.

in_cahoots
Sep 12, 2011

hoobajoo posted:

That's weirdly old, I don't know why that was the recommendation. Young kittens heal quicker, so it's actually a little easier on her, and it doesn't run the risk of overlapping with a heat. I'm in the USA, maybe there is some weird cultural difference, but I can't think of a benefit to waiting that long.

I've had three cats spayed between 1995-2005, and my experiences were pretty different from the ones here. When I did it the recommended age was 4 months or so, and we didn't get any instructions about an e-collar or keeping them in dark rooms. It sounds like there's been a pretty rapid evolution in spaying best practices, so I wouldn't be surprised if the recommendations change from country to country (or vet to vet).

Fashionably Great
Jul 10, 2008
I've never heard of putting a cone on a cat for a spay here, and the earliest my vet does spays is 12 weeks. My vet's explanation is that kittens can be so small there's a low risk not removing all the ovarian tissue and a tiny part could get left behind. Without a uterus or functioning ovaries the cat won't get pregnant but will go into heat and hell no I'm not going to deal with that.
I'm in the midwest in a large town, and have had several vets that all said the same things about spaying.

effika
Jun 19, 2005
Birds do not want you to know any more than you already do.
We had our cat spayed about a month after we got her, which unfortunately was long enough for her to start getting heats. She was in heat when she got spayed, a good thing: the doctor opened her up a little more to get all the tissue and found some vascular abnormalities. (Turns out she's a chimera!)

The vet gave her dissolving stitches, and no e-cone. We were told to keep her in a small room where she couldn't jump around a lot for a few days. The cat was on Fentanyl following the surgery so she didn't want to do much but lay around anyway. She didn't go after her stitches much so it seemed to work out.

ATP5G1
Jun 22, 2005
Fun Shoe
One of my cats got open abdominal surgery and was prescribed an e-collar. I also had a soft one. He wouldn't eat or drink with either on though, and had already lost a lot of weight due to not eating or drinking prior to the surgery. So I bought him a little dog sweater and put it on backwards so the long part meant to go down the back went down his stomach. I cut a few holes at the very end and threaded a piece of gauze through them to loop around his body so he couldn't pull the flap of the sweater up and get at the stitches, and I opened the arm holes up a bit because the fabric bunched around his chest since it was meant to stretch across the back. He didn't like this option either but he slept more comfortably and was willing to eat and drink. Now well-secured pet clothing is my favorite way for keeping my kitties away from any wounds or stitches. It kept one foster away from her infected spay stitches and another away from a hot spot he had on his back that he wouldn't let heal.

HelloSailorSign
Jan 27, 2011

BisonDollah posted:

We were told by the vet that if our cat is spayed whilst she's in heat then she could get "trapped in heat", which we didn't think much of at the time because when we booked her op (for tomorrow) it felt a long way off for our wee kitten to worry about that stuff - but ohshit is she not just doing the frog stance and crying like poo poo for the first time today and now we're freaking out on whether to take her to get spayed tomorrow or not. The internet doesn't actually say much about it, I'm trying to insist we go for it but the idea of pushing for it and then her being trapped in heat is not a very nice one.

Trapped in heat is an old thing. There are more blood vessels, tissue is more fragile, and they might bleed more intra-op, so lots of vets don't want to do in heat animal spays, but they can be done.

Shelters and rescues can do cats at 10 weeks because they can, but normal convention is still 4-6 months. There is some talk of later neutering for dogs (and thus maybe cats) but the research is lacking imo to make the definitive decision what to do- 4 mo vs. later.

supermikhail
Nov 17, 2012


"It's video games, Scully."
Video games?"
"He enlists the help of strangers to make his perfect video game. When he gets bored of an idea, he murders them and moves on to the next, learning nothing in the process."
"Hmm... interesting."
Yes! My cat has finally fallen asleep in the hammock of her tree (a year after purchace). That's, let's say, 3.75-4.15 out of 5 floors of the structure / 75-83% of the price put to use! Of course, I had to put her there myself, and she was sleepy fresh off my lap.

More on topic,

ATP5G1 posted:

One of my cats got open abdominal surgery and was prescribed an e-collar. I also had a soft one. He wouldn't eat or drink with either on though, and had already lost a lot of weight due to not eating or drinking prior to the surgery. So I bought him a little dog sweater and put it on backwards so the long part meant to go down the back went down his stomach. I cut a few holes at the very end and threaded a piece of gauze through them to loop around his body so he couldn't pull the flap of the sweater up and get at the stitches, and I opened the arm holes up a bit because the fabric bunched around his chest since it was meant to stretch across the back. He didn't like this option either but he slept more comfortably and was willing to eat and drink. Now well-secured pet clothing is my favorite way for keeping my kitties away from any wounds or stitches. It kept one foster away from her infected spay stitches and another away from a hot spot he had on his back that he wouldn't let heal.
That's similar to what a vet did with my cat back in the '00s, except it looked less boutique, and more like a bunch of cloth wrapped around the cat. I thought we were quite satisfied with the experience. Also, Russia - spayed just after the first heat.

ATP5G1
Jun 22, 2005
Fun Shoe

supermikhail posted:

That's similar to what a vet did with my cat back in the '00s, except it looked less boutique, and more like a bunch of cloth wrapped around the cat. I thought we were quite satisfied with the experience. Also, Russia - spayed just after the first heat.

I wish vets would do this instead of just giving the damnable collar. I guess they're afraid of the animal tearing the cloth off or something.

(I laughed when I saw the word "boutique", I should post a pic of the janky $5 Walmart dog sweater situation I put that poor cat through)

Organza Quiz
Nov 7, 2009


When I got my cat spayed a couple of years ago she didn't get a cone of shame (and in fact the vet looked at me weird when I asked if she was getting one) but the vet did put bad-tasting stuff on her sutures so it was unpleasant to lick. She wasn't happy about it because she did keep trying to lick the stitches every now and then and reacting like she'd just tasted something horrible but I think she was happier than if she'd had an e-collar and it stopped her from picking at them too much.

supermikhail
Nov 17, 2012


"It's video games, Scully."
Video games?"
"He enlists the help of strangers to make his perfect video game. When he gets bored of an idea, he murders them and moves on to the next, learning nothing in the process."
"Hmm... interesting."
Oh, I also meant to ask a possibly-not-very-smart question. Due to there now being a dog in the house and my cat's consequent confinement to a single room (and in fact she now treats the rest of the house as more or less the wild frontier), and also because my financial situation has become more or less stable, I keep coming up with wild ideas for the improvement of my cat's environment. The current one: maybe I could get a small aquarium for entertainment purposes? I don't have the space for another cat, and other (smaller) animals I can think of either don't cohabit with cats well, or would require as much or more care (and/or a huge aquarium also, which is why this idea concerns fish). There's a nice spot for one on the table with cat grass, but I haven't had any experience with fish since my early teens, and at that time the aquarium was firmly out of reach of cats, (partly because) it was open, and also it was somewhat prone to accidents (due to it being open I guess). Any thoughts?

Tamarillo
Aug 6, 2009
Even though it's blatantly obvious that you really don't like your sister's puppy at all, would it not be worth trying to get the cat and dog to the stage where they can co-exist to some degree? When my puppy ran up to my cats he got his face smacked in and that's that. Now he knows that getting close to cats is Bad News.

Also getting an 'entertainment aquarium' is a bad idea because your cat WILL try to go fishing.

supermikhail
Nov 17, 2012


"It's video games, Scully."
Video games?"
"He enlists the help of strangers to make his perfect video game. When he gets bored of an idea, he murders them and moves on to the next, learning nothing in the process."
"Hmm... interesting."
Kinda yeah... Well, the puppy still poos and pees in inappropriate places, so I don't want to let him into my room, and the cat runs off to the highest furthest spot in my room when she sees the puppy. So, eh. :shrug:

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Organza Quiz
Nov 7, 2009


I recently moved from a house with a very enclosed back courtyard to a house with a very open and utterly non-catproof backyard. My cat used to go freely into the courtyard because she has very little initiative and often a nervous creature and there was no way she was going to work out that she could jump the fence (and she didn't for two years). I'd like to let her to continue to experience outside a bit but I'm definitely not comfortable letting her out freely into this backyard, because she will get out within minutes. Ideally in future I'd like for her to have a nice cat run but that's not financially viable for the moment. I've taken her out a couple of times on her harness now instead. She's pretty happy on the harness and more curious than nervous about being out there as long as I'm right next to her so I think this could be a decent compromise. But I do have a couple of things worrying me:

First, this time when we went out she tried going somewhere I didn't want her to, so I just stood my ground and didn't give her more leash. She pulled a little bit on the harness and then dropped to the ground with a coughing fit, as if the strap around her neck had been pressing down on her or something. This is a harness that goes around her chest as well and it's my understanding that the whole point of that is to take pressure off their neck so nothing like that happens. I'm still pretty much a newbie at this but I thought I had it on not too loose or too tight and I feel pretty terrible if I screwed it up enough to give her a coughing fit. Does that sound like a thing that could happen if it's not REALLY obviously too tight or loose or is it more likely to be coincidence? She's never coughed before but this house is also in a very different part of town to my previous place and I guess it could have been an allergic reaction of some kind to something out there. I've taken her on the harness to the vet before and I'm pretty sure she's pulled at it and been fine, now that I think about it.

Secondly, yesterday she was pretty happy when she was back inside but today she gave me a couple of THE WORLD IS ENDING yowls after I got the harness off and left her alone. I don't mind ignoring a little bit of yowling but what I am worried about is that the more I let her out on supervised visits the more obsessed she's going to get with being outside and it might make her less happy on balance, since she knows more of what she's missing. I know there are a bunch of people on here who take their cats out on harnesses on a regular basis so can you guys reassure me it's fine and she'll adapt to just going out once a day or so for a bit of a sniff and a roll around in the sand?

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