GPS Device for tracking a pet?

BrianD3

My parent's 10 year old cat (neutered female) has recently started to wander and go missing. This is the first time in her life that she has done this, up until now, the farthest she would go is to the end of the garden We are wondering if some sort of GPS device can be attached to her collar and transmit its location to a mobile phone. I know these type of things are available for tracking wild animals but I don't know a) if they would be small enough for a cat b) whether they would work in Ireland with Irish networks c) whether they would be prohibitively expensive

Anyone have any info?

Sigma Force

Wish there was such a thing readily available, there must be around somewhere in this day and age but could be expensive.
Would your parents consider cat proofing the garden so he can't leave it.
So much traffic, dogs and people out there just waiting to do harm to cats these days.

BrianD3

What does "cat proofing" a garden entail? Does it mean making it physically impossible for the cat to leave the garden?

Alun

I've often wondered about this myself too. I think that the biggest problem would be in finding something small and lightweight enough to be able to put it on the cat and have it stay there. There are GPS tracking units out there that use GSM modules to send out tracking data (you'd need a valid SIM card as well), and there are also pure data loggers, which would mean you'd only be able to find out where it had been once it had returned, but these are mainly for use in car tracking applications and are far too bulky, mainly due to the size and weight ofthe batteries needed. You'd also have to 'mount' (?!) it on the cat in such a way that the antenna was always facing upwards and wouldn't be knocked off by a p1ssed off cat, which could be a challenge to say the least. The only other thing I can think of is something like Garmin's Forerunner, which is a wrist attached GPS for joggers. Maybe you could attach it round it's neck like a collar?

BrianD3

I just found this which is the sort of thing I'm looking for.
http://www.environmental-studies.de/products/pet-tracking/Cat-tracking/cat-tracking.html

However it does have a couple of disadvantages which Alun predicted. It weighs 110 g and is approx 6 cm by 4 cm by 3 cm. That is probably too big and heavy to be hanging from a cat's collar. In any case, the device doesn't appear to work with collars as it must be mounted on top of the cat in a sort of harness so that the antenna can get a signal.

Wait a few years and devices like this will probably have shrunken dramatically and will then be suitable for cat tracking

BrianD3

Found another one
http://www.surveillance-equip.com/pet.gps.html
This one is slightly smaller. I don't know what the situation with the antenna is with this one.

It is quite dear at 1600 dollars. I think many pet owners would be willing to pay this if they knew it was going to be a one off payment. It probably wouldn't work that way though, the thing could get broken, torn off by the cat, stolen etc. All of which would result in 1600 quid down the drain

Sigma Force

Cat proofing a garden means using fencing and wire netting to prevent the cat from leaving the garden.

Even if GPS was widely available the cost would be on the high side, so if you could affor GPS you could afford to cat proof the garden esp if the garden is a walled one, if the garden is large and would be difficult to proof then an aviary type enclosure would work well