Apricot's Big Boy Clothes

July 27, 2014 Sunday

All this week I've been slowly getting Apricot used to wearing his harness. Only I call it his Big Boy Clothes and say all kinds of admiring things about him while he's wearing it. That lets him know I think he looks nice in it, instead of embarrassing. Honestly, if you get a harness that fits a cat and isn't uncomfortable, their biggest issue with it then becomes the fact that they have dignity and this isn't dignified.

I took a picture yesterday to let you know what a figure-8 harness is, and how it works. My normally camera-shy Apricot decided to help demonstrate.

Apricot helping to show you what his Big Boy Clothes are like.

Okay, a figure-8 harness is rather like a mobius strip. The two circles above are one long strip of harness fabric, with the silver thing on the left side of the largest one being the clasp. I don't like this type of clasp--it's like a human belt buckle instead of a snap-together harness clasp--and it's difficult for me to make work. I'll probably be getting a different harness for him eventually. Any thoughts on colors? I knew black would go with anything, so it would look good on him.

I'm getting side-tracked. Okay, his paw is on the part that goes around his head like a collar. The other loop goes around his chest right behind his front legs. The join part is an independent loop of harness fabric with a D-ring so you can attach a lead to it.

The cool thing about this arrangement is you can enlarge the collar part to where the body loop is very small, slip this large loop over the cat's head (which is generally much better received than a tight loop which compresses the ears and whiskers as it passes over the head), and then tighten it, making the body loop bigger so you can put that around his chest.

I am not very swift putting it on him, and I have a tendency to get stuck trying to get the belt buckle connection fastened. So not only does poor Apricot have to learn to wear a harness, but he has to learn to put up with my clumsiness in getting it on and off him.

At first, he'd only put up with it for a few minutes and then it became something dreadful that he needed to wash off his fur immediately. That's when I'd take it off. (I found this response--trying to wash it off--to be unique and hilarious, but I didn't let him know that I thought it was funny.)

No, no, go on without me; I can't make it. Remember me!

After a few days, he left it on longer. Unlike some cats, he didn't act like the harness cut the nerves from his brain to his legs and become a helpless furry slug on the floor. He was walking around with it even the first time I put it on him. It's walking around, though, that makes him more aware of it on him and makes him start to get nervous about it.

He walks with a funny kind of bounce while he's wearing it, although that is becoming far less pronounced now that he's getting used to it.

Yesterday I left it on him for about an hour. I took it off after that mostly because I felt like it and less because he was freaking out about it, because he wasn't. I've been giving him a Vetri-science treat afterwards. It's a functional health treat that promotes urinary tract health, so he can only have one a day. It's a monster sized treat; shaped like a fish. I would have been breaking it in half for him, except that I saw him eat that huge fly, and knew that not only could he handle having a large treat, but he actually likes to be able to tear it apart himself.

I think the treat really helps with the whole acceptance thing. He's actually wearing the harness right now, and sleeping quite happily on the cat tree as if it wasn't there!

Also the treat helps with getting him back to me. I kind of instinctively made him come back to me with just my voice the first few times when he was really getting scared about the harness, instead of trying to catch him. 

Blurry, but you can see he walks
just fine with it on, despite previous protests.

Something has always been off to me about trying to catch Apricot. It's like there's just a barrier there in my head about going after him, like I know deep down that will scare him even more. And if he comes to me of his own accord, especially when things are scary (like the harness) and I solve the problem, I become a solution to scary rather than a cause of it. Which makes perfect sense but it's not like I thought it through initially. I've always "gone after" my cats, but they were never this skittish.

Now that Apricot appears to have accepted the harness completely, I suppose I have to find where I put the lead and try that. I'm anticipating having a leash trailing from his harness is not going to be well-received.

You're supposed to attach it but let it trail loose, no holding it, at first. Of course, this means harness time will have to be supervised closely again--the last two days I've been kind of doing my own thing while he's wearing it. 

In fact, today, I'm beginning to think I might forget to take it off him if I'm not careful to remember!

No longer a big deal to wear it.
Outside is more interesting.
(No, I have no idea what caught his interest.)