Safely Home: Harness Houdini

We harness train our cats. Living in an apartment, the only fresh air the cats receive is while spending time on the screened-in patio. We want our cats to be able to enjoy the outdoors as well as the indoors, and the air conditioning. After Frazier became accustomed to walking on a harness and leash inside, I took him on walks outside. One day, we were walking around the pond on the property of our residential community. When he realized we were close, really close, to water, Frazier began to panic. He does not like water at all. He jumped and ran and thrashed and wriggled right out of the harness and bolted into the sanctuary of trees surrounding the property. This happened within seconds. I couldn’t reach him in time and Frazier disappeared into the woods.

When Frazier did not come home that night, I logged into the PetLink website to report him missing. PetLink provided me with a pre-made poster for our lost cat. All I had to do was add his picture! When Frazier was found, PetLink even sent me a text message and email to notify me of his whereabouts.

I was thankful we spent a little extra money at the vet’s office to have microchips implanted in our cats. Without the microchip, Frazier would not have been properly identified and returned to his fur-ever home. The shelter which housed him found us because of his microchip and its corresponding barcode. The cost of a microchip is very reasonable and I encourage any pet owner to speak with their vet about the benefits. For us, it was money well spent as our family is now back together again! Thank you PetLink!