Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

It only takes one incident to change your life and your cat's life forever. I bought this leash to help my diabetic cat get some exercise and some fresh air at my fairly peaceful apartment complex (it's right next to a park). I always kept the harness on a snug fit, had the loop in a boy scout knot around my wrist. A few times when we'd go walking my cat would get scared, or he'd try to slink off, but the harness would catch him off guard and give me a chance to grab a hold of him. BUT THEN TONIGHT HAPPENED. We were walking around the apartment complex, maybe the 9th or 10th time I'd used the harness on him, and my cat was feeling very confident and at ease walking around. We came to a gate he always liked sniffing at, and I thought he might like to walk around the other side, since it was still on the apartment grounds (it's a metal barred fence that you can see what's on the other side). So I opened the gate a crack, and started to slowly push it open for him. My cat reacted in a way that I never would have expected and that took me completely by surprise. He absolutely freaked. And I don't mean timjid scared slink-off-ish, I mean he totally went ballistic. And it was totally out of character --- he's always been a cool and calm cat, never one to get emotional about anything. Since I had the leash in a boy scout knot on my arm I was holding the leash the entire time as he went into a crazed frenzy. The best way I can describe it is that he became a little Tazmanian Devil, blurring, rolling, spinning and flying through the air, desperately doing everything in his power to escape the harness. It's all in slow motion in my head, and it took maybe 2-3 seconds for him to become a crazed lunatic. I was awestruck and didn't know how to react to his extremely violent and sudden reaction, and tried to pull the harness to catch him out of his whirlwind, and also trying to grab at him. HE THEN ESCAPED THE HARNESS AND RAN AWAY. I chased after him, trying to catch up, but he ran off like his life depended on it. He leaped into some bushes near the gate of our community pool, and by the time I caught up with him, he was gone. Do you know what it's like to lose your cat? I adopted my cat as a diabetic stray, and for the past two years, every day and every night I've taken glucose readings, given him shots, fed him on schedule, and did my best to take care of him. I loved him so much, and gave my life to saving him. Imagine being out at midnight, shaking a bag of cat food, looking around for your best pal you've known for years, a friend that brought a smile to your face in the mornings when he fell down and rolled on the floor, who made you laugh when he acted in a dumb way or acted too nosy when looking for food, who surprised you by curling up next to you and falling asleep. In the middle of the night, looking for that friend, you realize just how dark things are and how hard it is to see... how many crevices and places a cat could hide that you can't access. And you wonder how far he might have run off out of fear, and how the unknown dangers of the world might make him even more frightened. I was nauseous. You cry and you dread, and you blame yourself a million times, and you think of the million things you could have done differently, so that it might not have happened. "Maybe if I had made it snugger! Maybe if I hadn't opened the gate!" Maybe if we had just walked down a different path, or stayed in front of the apartment, or just stayed home tonight". And your mind races to things you could do to try and save him, like make posters and flyers, staying out all night to keep up the search, going to nearby vets to let them know to call you if they see a cat that matches yours, putting out a Craigslisting, checking the animal pound to see if they might have founder your cat. I had never considered any of those things before tonight. Because I honestly thought the harness would be sufficient for holding my cat. After the 6th or 7th time of using the harness, I thought I had figured the harness out. "It's not for walking your cat, it's just a failsafe for if your cat gets scared, so you can grab them" is what I had eventually started telling myself. But I was dead wrong. Thankfully, this story has a happy ending. I called my entire family to come help me look for my cat, and they came to look. We searched for 4 hours and my brother managed to find him and bring him back to my apartment. You have no idea how relieved I was to get that phone call. I was miserable and exhausted by that point, and words couldn't begin to describe how glad I was to hear that he had been found. Now to be clear, I had followed all of the instructions for the leash, gotten the appropriate size for my cat, made sure it was a snug fit, and tried to only go out late at night so as to reduce the chances he might get scared by the environment. I tried my best to be careful, and I had no idea one unassuming event would completely negate all of that careful and earnest planning. To anyone who thinks it might not happen to them, that they could be more careful and use it more properly, ask yourselves --- is it worth the risk? Is it worth the heartache, the dread, the guilt? Is it worth your cat's life? I actually thought "yes", thinking that I was being kind to my cat by giving him a safe opportunity to enjoy the outdoors. I even ignored one of the comment ratings on this product that warned about their cat escaping the harness and never returning. And look at where I'm at now. The harness failed me once, and it's not getting a second chance to fail again. It's not worth the risk. It's not worth my cat's life. It only takes one failure to potentially change your cat's life forever.