Help us get our kitty back with lojack
July 23, 2015 6:17 AM Subscribe
This scamp has a habit of visiting our neighborhood park. There's a greenway behind the park where he will ramble during the day. We're looking for a kitty GPS (or RFID and reader) that will give us a bead on where he is.
Generally, when we call his name, he'll come running and will follow us home. However, sometimes he's deeply engaged in conducting his cat business and can be difficult to locate.
A similar question was asked previously. We're looking for something that will work in a wooded area, though. We're happy to tramp after him and generally know where he goes, but need something that can help us pinpoint his lair when he chooses to lay low. We're thus looking for something that has a greater range than 500 ft. Also important: it would need to be something that slides on his collar as opposed to a pendant, as pendants tend to get chewed off and/or cause collars to get slipped.
Recommendations? Tech enabled cat locating anecdata?
Generally, when we call his name, he'll come running and will follow us home. However, sometimes he's deeply engaged in conducting his cat business and can be difficult to locate.
A similar question was asked previously. We're looking for something that will work in a wooded area, though. We're happy to tramp after him and generally know where he goes, but need something that can help us pinpoint his lair when he chooses to lay low. We're thus looking for something that has a greater range than 500 ft. Also important: it would need to be something that slides on his collar as opposed to a pendant, as pendants tend to get chewed off and/or cause collars to get slipped.
Recommendations? Tech enabled cat locating anecdata?
The Tagg Pet tracker does the same as PawTrack described above, and likewise a subscription is required. The size of the device on the collar is... non-trivial, but doable for an active furball. Collar is $80, service is $10/month. The marketing appears to be substantially aimed at dogs and the people who want to find them, not cats and their people, probably because of the size of the thing.
Tile might be a better option as long as you're willing to play a game of hot/cold with your cat, and can accept the <100 foot range.
posted by Sunburnt at 11:40 AM on July 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
Tile might be a better option as long as you're willing to play a game of hot/cold with your cat, and can accept the <100 foot range.
posted by Sunburnt at 11:40 AM on July 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
Tile might be a better option
I have the Tile for several sets of keys. It's okay for keys, but my overall review of the device would have to be "Meh."
Its volume is way too low. It often doesn't spot things very close by. It works enough that I'm not entirely unsatisfied, but there's no way I would count a Tile to find my cats for me.
posted by instead of three wishes at 12:56 PM on July 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
I have the Tile for several sets of keys. It's okay for keys, but my overall review of the device would have to be "Meh."
Its volume is way too low. It often doesn't spot things very close by. It works enough that I'm not entirely unsatisfied, but there's no way I would count a Tile to find my cats for me.
posted by instead of three wishes at 12:56 PM on July 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Per my dog-related question, I ended up getting a Tagg tracker. It's not 100% what I was looking for, but I ended up keeping it for the peace of mind it gave me that my escape artist is still in the house (or "Tagg Home Zone"). Tagg also has a pretty good phone app for finding your pet on the fly and you can configure it to email you (at multiple addresses) as well.
Tagg could definitely do what you want. It's not super huge compared to a normal-sized cat, and it securely latches onto a collar. When in "locating" mode (which it's required to be out of the home zone to be in), it updates every 3 minutes, which would be sufficient for getting within earshot of a moving cat or finding a semi-stationary cat.
It's quite a bit cheaper to buy the tracker and prepay for a year of service, which is the option I selected.
Here's a picture of my beautiful (and cooperative!) model with the Tagg tracker - the light gray side flaps are flexible silicone to prevent the tracker from catching on things. If you'd like a picture compared to a normal-sized cat, let me know and I can wrangle mine. :)
posted by bookdragoness at 3:32 PM on July 23, 2015
Tagg could definitely do what you want. It's not super huge compared to a normal-sized cat, and it securely latches onto a collar. When in "locating" mode (which it's required to be out of the home zone to be in), it updates every 3 minutes, which would be sufficient for getting within earshot of a moving cat or finding a semi-stationary cat.
It's quite a bit cheaper to buy the tracker and prepay for a year of service, which is the option I selected.
Here's a picture of my beautiful (and cooperative!) model with the Tagg tracker - the light gray side flaps are flexible silicone to prevent the tracker from catching on things. If you'd like a picture compared to a normal-sized cat, let me know and I can wrangle mine. :)
posted by bookdragoness at 3:32 PM on July 23, 2015
As a followup, I took some photos of my lovely, semi-cooperative cat model, Pollux, with Tesla's 1" dog collar draped alluringly over his shoulder. Pollux is about 13 lbs if I remember rightly, but may be as many as 15. His brother and littermate, Castor, is 8-10 lbs but is sleeping somewhere inaccessible to the fashion photography world.
posted by bookdragoness at 5:23 PM on July 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by bookdragoness at 5:23 PM on July 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
Also, the PawTrack device doesn't appear to have been released yet, despite a promised June 2015 release date; and the last post on their blog was in October of last year. So it may be vaporware.
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:57 AM on July 23, 2015