Animal Welfare Professionals

I have 2 kittens - one is 4 months and the other is 3 months. The 4 month old, Piper, is very, very active. She loves to jump, climb, explore, etc. She is an indoor cat, but she really wants to go outside. I’ve looked into outdoor pens and fence options to keep her in but nothing will work with our backyard or fencing. I’ve looked into a mesh pop up tent-like enclosure with tubes, but I’d like to give her the opportunity to explore both horizontally as well as vertically.

A friend suggested a harness with an extra long lead. I like this idea, but I don’t know if this is a good idea. She would ONLY go outside on the harness with me - she will never go out alone. If the lead was long enough, she could climb with me right there. I believe she will learn to love the harness. She’s really smart - it won’t take her long to learn the harness means going outside. I’m not necessarily  looking to take her for walks, but am not opposed to it. I really want to give her opportunity to safety explore the great outdoors.

Does anyone have experience with using a harness this way? How about opinions on this idea?

I tried this with one of my kittens. She would try to climb a tree and I was on the ground. It increased her desire to be outdoors. Where I live now, there are raccoons and coyotes and cats disappear often. My current kitten will not get a taste of the outdoors as I lost my Tom who was raised feral and even though tamed had to go outside. Too much woods are being cut down which displaces these predator animals.

I hadn’t thought about the possibility of her wanting to go outside even more. I have a feeling we will have to build wall shelves for her inside to hopefully distract her from the great outdoors. 

My little one hasn’t been outside, other than in a carrier, so she’s content to be inside.