When Chanel first came back to my house and became a permanent resident, I knew that I wanted to try to keep her very social and taking her places would be an important part of that process. She was about 7 months old when I officially adopted her and I wanted a harness that would fit her at that size. After several attempts, she made it very clear that she was not wild about things being slipped over her head. I did some looking around and found a harness called the Kitty Holster. I ordered an extra small and it seemed to do the trick.
I like several things about this harness. It uses heavy duty velcro at the neck and chest – no slipping anything over her head. There is a solid bar down the back of the harness where the D ring attaches for her leash. This keeps the harness from sliding and bunching up. And the material is two sided but light weight.
That said, I noticed over time that is seems to fit her funny.
If you look closely at this picture, the neck piece doesn’t fit quite right. I suspect that a more narrow piece would be an overall design upgrade, but that said, Chanel, at least to me, appears to have a shorter neck. I was tempted to try this harness on the current momma cat that I am fostering, but she is shy and I don’t want to push her. Both Daiquiri and Ivy (my other girl cats) are much bigger than Chanel so it wouldn’t be a good comparison.
As she has gotten older, I have to admit that I have stopped using this harness and gone back to a standard roman harness. Yes – I have to slide that one over her head and she turns into jello-kitten. However, it works a little better. I don’t know if moving up a size in the kitty holster would help or not, but it seems an expensive experiment since I can only get this harness online. As Chanel has gotten bigger (she is now a year old), the body part of the harness is shorter on her – riding more along her ribs and essentially giving her a reverse muffin top (poor girl).
The other thing I discovered is that she isn’t a fan of wearing it in her carrier after being out. I put her harness on at the house and prefer it stay on until we get back home just to be safe. I want her to have it on in case of emergency and I also don’t want to be messing with her in the car. Well after we have been out, she likes to sprawl in her carrier while we travel home. The last time I used this one, she made it clear she wasn’t happy about….something. I was somewhere I could pull over, so I did and took off the harness hoping that was her issue. She curled up and took a nap on the ride home. I think the bar on the back of the harness was restricting her movements.
I checked the sizing and found this:
Size | Chest Girth | Neck |
X-Small | 10-14 inches | 5-9 inches |
Small/Medium | 13-17 inches | 9-12 inches |
Medium/Large | 16-20 inches | 10-13 inches |
X-Large | 19-23 inches | 11-15 inches |
I don’t really think she would be above a small/medium. I do wish they would list the length from neck to chest however. Honestly, with the closures on the current harness, she really could continue to wear it. The sizing for her isn’t around but length.
Would we recommend this? Yep – I do like the concept. It fits securely, you can adjust it as needed, it is lightweight but very sturdy. I would continue to use it if it just didn’t fit her funny. I could live with the muffin top, but after she wears it for a while she makes it clear that the piece around her neck isn’t comfortable. (And I can’t do anything about the length of her neck, so we are kind of stuck – haha)
I’m not a fan of those heavy-duty vest type harnesses either. Actually, I don’t mind them all that much, but with my longer fur, they are hard to get on because my fur is always getting caught in the velcro or snaps they use for these.
I would like to see manufacturers put the length of a product too. Animals aren’t one size fits all.
It is definitely one size too small. I always recommend people measure their cat’s neck and torso as most people often just base the harness on the girth, when the neck is the most important part to get right. The SM would have given you more length to the neck strap and a better fit across the shoulders. The purple looks great on your kitty though 🙂
You could email and ask the length of the vest
PetSmart & Petco (yes I know) have 2 or 3 styles of Velcro Dog Harnesses, that they will mark down periodically, when new colors are introduced.
They are about $4, instead if $24, so I experimented with a few and I found one I liked, that works on 2 very differently built cats.
When I have more time I’ll look for links and post them.
Two things I think are important:
Use Velcro fasteners only, neck and stomach, no clips.
Make the D-ring to attach the leash is in the middle of the harness, NOT ALONG THE BACK EDGE (not in the seam along their back)
With the leash attached to the back edge of the harness, it will peel off over the cat’s head if they back away facing you.