Does anyone know anything about tracking devices for cats? Daughter's cat went missing for 3.5 days and, they say, is not being let out again until he has a tracking device.
There seem to be some expensive devices and some cheap ones from Hong Kong. They all seem to say GPS, phone tracking and use a sim card, presumably to text co-ordinates to either you or a central site for which a fee is required. Some also use wifi or bluetooth for near base.
Son and I think it would be a waste of money (approx £150 UK or £25 Chinese) because keeping the thing charged would be almost impossible.
Some Ebay listings suggesting GPS are not trackers or GPS.
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If you need a PAYG SIM where the credit doesn't run out until you use it try GiffGaff (basic PAYG and NOT the goody or data bags options - order a SIM from the GG web site and just put credit on it)
Yes, the phone has GPS. Not the tag, which just has bluetooth. The phone knows where it was when the tag disconnects (so you know where you dropped something).
If someone else *using the same app* has a phone within range of the tag, it will flag that phone's location. So I guess it might work in somewhere like Central Park.
Write to that show hich used these about a year or so back they even had cameras fitted on some.
Most of te time cats get locked into sheds and garages, and that is the reason they are missing, as nobody has taught them to use door handles yet.
Inside trapped cats will probably not be able to indicate their position if the lose gps in any case. You will find they patrol regualr routes and attempt to slightly expandthem if they encounter no resistance from other cats. The farm cat is usually more roaming than the city cat. Brian
Train them a bit more and they won't have to pretend they care if they live with you or not. ;-)
I think all cats could be trained to use the toilet and flush (I believe some can / have) and then they will be less likely to use my garden for that purpose. ;-(
Ah, that may explain why we found a cat flailing about in our downstairs toilet, ripping up the wallpaper as it tried to get back out the window it trespassed in though. It was trying to use it! ;-)
Every tracking device I've seen on the likes of ebay is way too big for a domestic cat to comfortably wear. They are more geared up to affixing to cars and hanging round the necks of dementia sufferers. Drug gangs have also used them to seek out the growing premises and either take the haul themselves or notify the police and take a competitor out of the market.
A tracker could be made a lot smaller. Components for a 25mm square 10mm thick tracker (plus battery) is a possibility if you roll your own. Achieving a battery life of a week or so is one issue, getting the cat to actually retain it about its person an even bigger one. Collars can easily be lost at the rate of a couple a week with an active cat moving through snaggy hedges etc.
3.5 days missing is not that unusual, it points more to being caught inside an outbuilding or an indoor cat just getting confused.
One thing that shouldn't be overlooked is dogs have owners, cats have staff.
The cat could conceivably be seeking out a far better home with staff that talk to it and pamper to its every needs as and when the cat wants it. Your daughter could just be nowhere near good enough for what the cat actually deems it requires, and that is the only measure that really matters.
Nowadays, many cat collars are elastic or have some other safety break to prevent the cat getting permanently caught on something.
Reminds me when I made a cat flap lock (40+ years ago). It used a magnet on the cat's collar to unlock the capflap. Main problem was the cat came back from the routine tour of her territory with quite a lot of bits of ironmongery trailing from the magnet. Had to give that idea up...
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