I came across this article from 2009 and it made me think of those spoof stories we see dated April 1st, and I actually laughed out loud at the thought of wanting to track the cat so closely.

I'm thinking how nice it would be to put one on the fox, not that he would ever let me close enough to do it.

(By the way, the fox caught a tree squirrel today. I've decided he isn't interested in the goose because it's so much easier to catch squirrels and get handouts from me than deal with a squawky goose.)


Cat GPS Locator

"PawTrack is a brand new cat GPS locator device that is designed to keep tabs on your cat as it roams in and around your house. Learn more about this miniature GPS unit that attaches to a cat collar which can potentially give you great peace of mind below.

PawTrack is designed to be a GPS cat locator and is relatively new to the market. It is innovative in the fact that most of these
types of GPS devices have been too big to be a feasible option for keeping an electronic eye on your cat. The radio collars used by the U.S. Forest Service for years to keep track of wolves and bears were designed for the same purpose that a GPS cat locator was developed. That is, to know exactly where the animal is when you want to find him and to give you an idea of where they had roamed (their habitual behavior) in a given time frame.

Those radio collars are bulky and require that you get pretty close to the collared animal to locate it using radio frequency tracking equipment, not GPS technology. But it was never a good idea for you to walk around the neighborhood with all that cumbersome electronic tracking and telemetry paraphernalia freaking out your neighbors. Now, the need and desire for a miniature GPS unit has led to its development because finally the equipment is tiny enough and still functional enough to digitally represent a cat’s life. So if you’re inquiring “Can I track my cat by GPS?” this is the closest you’re going to get.

PawTrack utilizes the kind of GPS technology that allows a person to track an object that has a GPS receiver remotely from a computer to locate your cat. So obviously the cat has a receiver on its collar and isn’t using the unit to navigate through suburban jungles. The PawTrack tracking device is exceptionally small and lightweight enough to attach to your cat's collar unlike the bulkier predecessors which have worked for bigger dogs in recent years. The little box that goes on the collar measures 5.5cm x 3.5cm x 1.8cm. It only weighs 50 grams which is 1.4 ounces (it’s a product made in England). The small box attached to the collar contains the essential GPS antenna, circuit board, modem, plus the battery power source.

That little box attached to your cat's collar upon activation transmits a signal every ten minutes from wherever the feline is on the PawTrax website. Pet owners can then log onto that website (which they register on when they first purchase the product) to discover approximately where little wandering Felix is at any given moment. Some users might also find it captivating to see exactly where their pet has been over a given timeframe using a history function, tracking their progress in essentially the same way that humans log their routes using waypoints on the handheld GPS devices that they use. With that, your cagey cat's ancient preference of clinging to independence is shattered, although they will be none the wiser. With this little gadget you can avoid that awful, heart sinking feeling that occurs when your pet is missing or on the lam. Don’t forget to look up in the trees when you have a fix."

This cat does not look happy. And I still don't believe it's a real product.