Tractive cat tracker is a real-time spy into feline antics

For better or worse, many cat owners let their feline friends have the lay of the land — after all, it can be very difficult to try to contain them in a backyard, even if that is the owner's intent. Cats love nothing more than being able to climb trees and scale fences. They are, in just about every way, better escape artists than dogs who are more likely to try to dig their way under a fence than try to get over it. As a result, it can be much harder to keep track of where your cat is when they've absconded for the day.

Tractive has been making GPS trackers for both dogs and cats for some time, and now it has launched the Tractive GPS Cat LTE Tracker with "Live" mode, giving owners real-time data that refreshes every 2 to 3 seconds. Tractive says the tracker has been designed with input from their recently hired in-house animal behaviorist Dr. Laura Lidauer. As a cat owner herself, Dr. Lidauer helped ensure the design of the tracker is both safe and comfortable for cats to wear at only 1.2oz.

Leaderboards and activity tracking

The Tractive GPS Cat LTE Tracker works with a companion app to reveal a cat's location history, as well as a heat map of its most frequented routes and hangouts over a full year. The tracker and app combo reveals how much time a cat has spent moving, as well as how much time it has spent napping.

Tractive has even set up a Leaderboard so you can see how active your cat is compared to other cats. This feature will help you identify when your cat may not be feeling well based on changes in its activity levels. With 36-percent of cat owners losing their pet at least once and over 6 million entering shelters every year in the US alone, according to the company, the Tractive GPS Cat LTE Tracker could well be a solution cat owners have been looking for.

The Tractive GPS Cat LTE Tracker is priced at $50 with a monthly subscription of $6.50 for monitoring.