Cats on a leash… yes, it exists

On a sunny afternoon in San Francisco, Jennifer Privett took a walk with her huge, fluffy, blue-eyed Himalayan dog Jean Claude.

With his lush, cream-colored coat and chocolate-colored face, tail, and paws, Jean Claude would turn heads even when strolling the streets of San Francisco off-leash.

He certainly attracts a lot of attention from passers-by when Privett walks with him through the neighborhood several times a week.

“People stop to talk to us all the time,” Privett said, just as a stranger walked up to the cat to ask his name. “He’s very social and I’ve made new friends because of this guy.”

Privett said the cat accompanies her to nearby destinations, such as the dry cleaners, a pizza parlor and various coffee shops.

“When I go there on the weekend without him, they ask, ‘Where is Jean Claude today?’”

The cat dilemma

Whether cats are allowed outside the house or not is controversial in this country. In many other countries, such as the UK, Morocco and Japan, they roam freely.

Cats can get hurt outdoors. But it is also estimated that cats kill more than 1 billion birds in the US each year.

“There’s no good answer to the cat dilemma,” said Jessica Pierce, a bioethicist who has written a book on the ethics of keeping pets. “It seems really problematic to let cats outside because of the implications for wildlife and also because of the dangers that cats are in from cars and evil people and things like that. At the same time, it also seems bad to keep cats indoors all the time, because they’re wild at heart and have a lot of cat behaviors that just aren’t satisfied, or are hard to satisfy, indoors.”

Some owners try to solve this problem by walking their cat and holding him while they do it.

“I think for the right cat it can definitely provide environmental enrichment, exercise and things like that,” said feline veterinarian Grace Carter.

But Carter said catwalking isn’t for everyone.

“Some cats are too stressed for it,” she said. “Some never get used to the harness and leash.”

Reasons to Walk a Cat

For Privett, walking Jean Claude was a practical decision. She said they started taking walks in the neighborhood about 10 years ago, when the cat was 3.

“It just kind of happened naturally,” she said. “I’ve lived in apartments mostly, and he wanted to go out. But I didn’t feel comfortable letting him go out.”

For fellow San Francisco cat owner Jennifer Balenbin, the outdoors are a way to boost her cat SpongeBob’s mental health. They even show up together at occasional get-togethers in San Francisco parks for like-minded people and their social cats.

“The vet wanted to give him Prozac,” Balenbin said. “But at first she said, ‘Can you let him outside, to roam?’ I said, ‘No, this is the city. I can’t.’ So we tried to let him out. And we found that the more he goes outside and is with us, the calmer he is at home.”

A trend driven by Instagram

Catwalking is not a new phenomenon. Owners have long paraded their prize cats on a leash for competitive cat shows.

But the most recent trend is fueled by social media.

“People see these beautiful pictures of cats outside,” said Laura Moss, the creator of Adventure Cats, an online resource for people who want to take their cats outside safely. “And they want to try it themselves.”

Moss says that owners who want to train their cat to walk on a leash should do so slowly and carefully.

“Introduce the harness once they’re inside — don’t put it on yet, just let them sniff it and get used to it. Make it a positive experience, like putting a treat on it,” she said. “Once they’re comfortable with it, snap the harness on, tighten it, put the leash on, and just practice walking around the house. And once your cat is comfortable with that, you can take them outside.”