On the Cat Walk

Today I bought a harness and a leash for my cat, Gizmo, so that I can take him on walks. You see, Gizmo needs to lose weight. He used to be able to run around outside when we lived in Oakland, but since we moved down to Southern Californa, he's been a strictly indoor cat. And this made him super fat. At one point he was 23 pounds.

And then he came down with diabetic symptoms. One day his little pancreas just threw its little hands up and said "You process the sugar! I'm going to sleep." We had to enforce a strict diet and inject him with insulin twice a day to convince his little organ to get back to work. 

But Gizmo is still a fat cat who whines for food when he isn't sleeping off a huge meal. He needs exercise and excitement. And by god, I just bought both.

Unfortunately, I bought a small dog harness without even looking to see if the nearby Petco had cat harnesses. I also bought one of those retractable leashes with about 16 feet of give so that, when we finally do get Gizmo outside, he'll have some room to roam.

Despite my oversight, the small dog harness works. It may not be super comfortable, but the important part is that he can't get it off. Taking Gizmo outside and then having him  slip the harness and disappear in the bushes would be a nightmare because the apartment complex that Morgan and I live in is a prowling ground for coyotes.