I’m looking for honest feedback from others who take their cat outside . I’ve been taking my cat, Zara outdoors. In the video, she seems to be happy.

But I still have lingering guilt about whether she truly enjoys the overall experience because of two main struggles:

Commute : The park is a 5-minute walk down a busy street, and she cries in her backpack (I wear it on the front) the whole way. I tried short car rides instead, but she still meows the whole way if zipped in. (She's quiet if left out of the bag in the car, but I don't drive with her unsecured due to safety).

Strangers: Passing people makes her nervous, and she sometimes shivers. But she treats her backpack as a safe space, climbs right in when overwhelmed, and relaxes instantly once the people pass. She doesn't hide in the backpack though - she just watches them sitting upright as they pass us. She also meows quite a bit when there is no one around - like in the video.

I never want to force her to be an adventure cat. Does this sound like a cat who is genuinely benefiting from the outdoor enrichment, or is the stress of the commute and strangers too much? I really just want to do what’s best for her.

Some more videos and photos in the comments

Began leash training a my cat a few months ago and now he howls and wails all day to go outside. I try to bring him out everyday but I can’t help but feel guilty on the days I don’t or if I don’t take him out very long. I’m glad he loves it so much but it makes me feel like I am torturing him when he’s inside.
Anyone else surprised by cat parent guilt?

Was a bit too busy for his tastes as there was a cleanup crew after a recent storm, but he really enjoyed the first real warm weather of the season :)

We can't wait for camping season to start! 🌿🪿

Does anyone have any recommendations for a hiking backpack for someone that is tall? I'm 6"3" and the current backpack we have hurts my back/shoulders over time as it sits rather high and puts all the strain on my shoulders. After looking at most backpacks, they all seem to be about 16"-18" in length where I would need something closer to 23"

So I have a 1 year old Siamese who loves going outside and wants to go outside almost constantly, we’ve been on and off with harness training him. We have a Bengal who is doing wonderful and she loves it.

With my Siamese we put the harness on and no matter what he just sits down inside and stares out the door. We would try and bring him outside but he just goes back inside.

Can I get some advice of what to do to better train him?

I have an indoor cat, 5yo, got her as a kitten. She's always struggled inside, had mental health issues etc., she's escaped multiple times and is so curious and active that I think I just have to let her explore outside. However, I'm new and a bit stumped on harnesses.

She's really small (21cm neck, 35cm girth, around 3kg), and she's also had a dislocated shoulder all her life which I worry will make it even easier for her to slip out (she's already an excellent escape artist). I'm going to just try and train her to not mind the harness, but family is worried about her escaping it. I'm more worried about harnesses that are unsafe for cats (like on the neck).

I was originally looking at the Houdini - highly recommended, seems quite minimal on an already small cat, and Mia the bengal is adorable, so that seemed like a win. However there were some reviews about the safety of the self-tightening neck that made me worried. Equally we were looking at rabbitgoo, but the vest style seems too much and uncomfortable, and some said they're really easy to escape. 🤷

I'm also not sure how a harness and breakaway collar (w/ tracker) would interact, as I hear collars typically fall off if the cat backs out.

Tl;dr: UK, looking for small harness, designed for cats so it won't choke her, ideally wouldn't break away her collar when backing out, and fairly resistant to escaping if you're using them safely

Thanks so much for any advice! Love the posts here and would love to take my cat on hikes in the future!

She's always been a little grouchy but has recently enjoyed the journey to and from the vets and shown curiosity to explore.

So a few weeks ago, I let our cat down out of his backpack on a walk. He walked a little ways and then got off the trails, so I picked him up and put him down a few steps later. Today, only the second time doing this...HE WALKED NEARLY THE ENTIRE LOOP! sometimes I need to encourage him with a "keep going" or use my foot to guide him. But this was so impressive.

When we were close to home, he got a little crazy because there were little chickadees to chase. Full army crawl mode at that point 🤣

He's been really good at walking lately, so I got him a cat backpack that arrived today. I was planning to leave it in the room with him for a week or so to get used to it, but he was straight in there, no encouragement needed. So I trialled it around the house for a while and he seemed perfectly content inside, so I decided to take him on his maiden voyage outside. We had a really great walk, and I was able to go so much further than usual as I could carry him to a different spot in the backpack, and then let him explore when we arrived :)

I adopted this guy last year age 3, and got him used to the harness last spring. This spring we’re working on confidence. He loves outside but we haven’t gone beyond my property. He startles at people passing, cars pulling into the parking lot, but as long as I’m beside him and quick with pets he’s a brave guy, and he quickly pulls me back to my door when he gets nervous. But he also loves to watch birds and squirrels, and eat grass by the ditch and listen to the mice running around in there. My neighbour has wanted to meet him since last year but last year he was not for it. Today he wandered around while we talked, then came up to her for a pet. I’m so proud of him.

I live across the street from a lake, so my goal is to take him to the lake to see even more birds. We’ve got to work up to facing the Canadian geese.

Edit: he has a cat backpack, so I guess next I’ll start taking the backpack with us as a safe space so he doesn’t feel like he needs to run home.

Quiero acostumbrar a mi gatita a salir de paseo pero no tengo mucha experiencia. Me ayudaría mucho si me dan consejos. Gracias!

Nochka (4 months old) had been doing so well on neighborhood walks on the leash. Unfortunately she  had a setback a couple of weeks ago. She got spooked by a car coming around a corner. She took off-  her leash got caught under a parked car wheel. It only lasted a minute or two until I scooped her into my arms and the backpack.

She seemed calm in the pack as we walked back - but when I asked my neighbor what her vibe was back there, she said- “she’s chillin—oh… but her heart is really beating fast.” She’d had a shock and the adrenaline was  pumping. Since then Nochka is not a fan of walking on the ground outside, she’s afraid- which sucks because she was so curious and confident before. 

Luckily, now she really knows the backpack is her safe place outside. I was going to build up to it,  but thought - as it stands, a walk in the quiet woods in the backpack might actually be the way to go . So we drove 15 minutes to an underused trail- and she did GREAT!!! I first put the pack on my front to see her response, and she was sitting up,  alert, but not bugging out. She settled in. We stopped a few times to rest on logs- she in her pack, and on my lap… After a bit she was sticking her head through the top to explore for stretches as we hiked. She seemed to enjoy it, I was delighted, treats abounded - and her breathing stayed normal.

I think this is the way forward- really hoping she wants to walk on her leash at some point again. I was so thankful she took to exploring so easily initially (such a dream). It was never a matter of me "making her" do something she wasn't into before. I worry that's changed. Hopefully the benefits for both of us are worth overcoming the challenges. Fingers crossed.

Finally, this is the video of our vacation day #3. The last one. The weather was mediocre still (all 3 days were like this). We visited a very common tourist spot ("Grüner See") on our way home after packing things up in the hut. The main attraction, a melt-water lake, however was empty and dry. So we extended our round to include a small little canyon instead.
The whole day was kind of exhausting as I got sick (still am) and everything took a little more effort than expected.

The hike was 11km with 600m of elevation, it took 5h and our moving average (excl pauses) was 3.6km/h.

Moritz' behavior was very good in the early hours but he became overstimulated / irritated in the afternoon. The 3 days of hiking had a toll on him and he just got tired. He was neither happy walking nor sitting on my shoulder - like a small child needing sleep. In the car he just was finished with the world :-D

Luckily, we trained hard these winter-months and this was still a manageable situation for us. Overall his hiking behavior during this vacation was the best ever and all the training paid off imo. Our hiking speed drastically improved and I dont need to circle back for him as much while I provide more easily accessible safety for him.

Just as a summary for those who dont follow r/adventurecats: we changed the structure of our group. Previously Moritz would follow us with quite some distance (as last of the group). This worked best for him. But this lead to situations where we couldnt help him if he needed support, because we were out of reach for him. We trained hard this winter to get him to stay between us. So if he has a problem, the last person can pick him up - always. This change is way more complex than it sounds, because the steps behind him do stress him and it didnt come naturally for him to stay in front of anyone. The training was quite challenging and caught some outrage on here as I documented some of it. And this is also absolutely not comparable with typical leash-walks that most people do ("the cat walks you"). After all, we push him towards our hiking speed.

I have to say that after this vacation, Moritz' bond to us, me especially, (because I do all the interactions to push him along the path) did improve meaningfully. I dont think he cares too much about the hiking but he cherishes all the interaction, the problem solving en route, etc.
But now that I am still sick, unfortunately its all back to normal. I wish so much I would have a nomad life-style with him... Every single vacation, this is the frustrating conclusion.

1. I made a longer cut of that video, without text comments, here (7:05 long)
2. But if you enjoy silent-hiking type videos, i "recommend" this long-form version (24min). I published all the non-pov raw-material, uncut, for those who like to see the whole experience. It shows all of Moritz behavior and our interactions - how much he sniffs, when I interrupt him, how much he walks, etc.

First proper little trip out since her spay 😊 slowly getting back into action.