I am a cat lover. My husband and I share our home with two cats especially when we are vacationing in Mexico while on a budget we really miss our cats. Willie, a twenty pound Siamese and Wonka, an average sized long haired Calico. When Wonka first moved in with us we were going to name her Nelson, however the name Wonka seemed to fit her personality much better. Notice that I have not mentioned that we own the cats. I have found through the many years that I have shared my life with various cats that you never own them. I do want to make sure that people know that Willie and Wonka are not stray cats so I put a cat collar on each of them. By wearing a cat collar with an identification tag I hope that if the cats get out of our yard that a neighbor will call us.

It was not easy for Willie to get used to wearing a cat collar. The first one I bought for him was in a bright red. I thought it looked very nice with his chocolate brown and beige coat. He would manage to slip the cat collar off in a matter of minutes. I kept putting the collar on and he would take it off. Collars for cats have a stretchy piece of elastic in them as a safety feature in case the collar would get hooked on a fence or branch. After several attempts at getting him to wear the collar he hid it. I found the collar about three weeks later under the sofa. I told my husband that I thought Willie did not like the bright red color. My husband insisted that the cat just did not like having something around his neck.

I went back to the pet store and purchased another cat collar in a beige color. The beige matched Willie’s fur very well. I put the collar on him when I came home from the store and he has never taken the collar off. I think the red was too gaudy for his refined taste. Wonka was even more of a challenge to buy a cat collar for due to her long hair. I was concerned that her fur would get matted around the collar. The clerk at the pet shop suggested a nylon collar rather than leather. I bought her collar in neon pink. She is quite a flashy kitty. She has always liked being the center of attention, so the neon pink fit her personality. She seems to enjoy wearing the collar.

After some trial and error the cats now wear their collars and identification tags most of the time during the day. We do take the collars off at night so we do not have to listen to the rattle of the tag against the metal tab on the collar.