Whistle Go Explore/The Ultimate Health + GPS Location Tracker for Pets/Grey

As an indoor-outdoor cat owner, one immense concern of mine was making sure that neither cat of mine (I have two, only have the tracker on the one shown) would get to far away from home and would never, ever spend a minute past sunset. This is because at night, the area I live in is known to have foxes, coyotes and bears. Things I would not like my cat to know exists. Anyways, the one shown, has been known to "hide-out" once the sun sets because like any cat, is curious about what goes on, constantly. One area she has not been able to explore is of course, what life is like outside, at night. So, using this tracker, whenever she refuses to come in for the late night/dinner bell in hopes of staying out at night, I can easily log on, request my cat's location and there fore go over to the general vicinity (Within 2 feet if cat is not moving. If moving, within 10 feet) and pick her up and bring her in. Yes it is that easy. Another thing is, you are also able to turn on a flashlight feature of the gps tracker. This can prove to be immensely important when trying to track down your cat as it gets darker. Believe it or not, I do have a hard time at seeing this pictured cat at dusk, so, having the light feature is amazing. Can take 30 seconds for the light feature to be activated, however, that is not a huge issue and is quite bright.Aside from the tracking and flashlight features, there are other features that make it worth it. You are able to see the places and destinations your cat explores (pictured above). As a curious cat owner, I found that to be an extremely cool feature. It also lets you know whenever your car escapes your "safe zone." Also, the battery absolutely does last the claimed 20 or so days (does not track/update quite as frequently when in the safe zone. This have proven to be non-problematic for me. Also seems to be quite responsive to once the cat leaves or enters the safe zone. I get a notification/alert within a minute of entering or leaving the zone) and has been problem free once it has been set up, which, is also extremely easy to do.As you can see in the pictures, the tracker may seem bulky, however, this particular cat doesn't even know when its on and I have noticed no change in behavior with her wearing it. Lastly, I have tried other gps trackers and not a single one (gps mini, which was way too heavy & fitbark, worked inconsistently) and this is by far the most effective & best one. $100 is by no means cheap, however, the light up feature alone, in my eyes is worth it. If you are a cat or dog owner, I would think this is absolutely the best gps tracker on the market. Its also quite water resistant, which is perfect for my cat who adores water and finds a way to dip her gps tracker into her wet cat food. This feature makes it an easy clean with wet wipes. Anyways, hope this helps.

This thing really is fantastic. Save yourself the worry over every possible issue and just buy it. There is a monthly data plan required but it is absolutely worth it. This product just seems better all around than the only other strong competitor I checked out called the Findster Duo that did not require an extra data plan. Frankly I consider the data plan on the same lines of an HBO subscription, as tracking this cat really ends up being a pretty entertaining situation. AND every night I get to make myself snortlaugh by turning on the app and singing "Trackin' that a$s, trackin' that cat as$!" It's a good time.The tag is kind of large but it really is fine on a kitty. My cat is not bothered in the slightest! (see picture) She is about 12 lbs or so but I have a much smaller, petite kitty who is also fine with the tag. Just tell them you need them to help you through the eazy-pass toll lane and make yourself laugh. The tag has a plastic clip to attach to the collar and I use a regular safety-release cat collar which works perfectly. (no need to feel like you have to get the special Whistle collar) Some reviews complain about the clip, but it is sturdy enough and I just take off the whole collar when I get her in for the night/put it on again before she goes out the next day to avoid having to mess with the clip. The clip part stays on the collar and is kind of the base of the tag, and you twist off the top of the tag to remove from the clip to expose the port for when you need to charge the battery.Speaking of the battery, it seems to hold up pretty well- at least for our usage. (I worried a lot before that she would disappear and the battery would die before I could find her but if you are keeping tabs there would be plenty of time before that could happen- as long as you stay on top of battery charge)My cat doesn't really care about going out during the day and lounges at home. While at home and in the wifi range- it isn't using up battery power. I put the collar on her in the evening and she sort of hangs around the yard awhile and then starts to roam. The battery mostly doesn't come into play for us until after she leaves the "safe zone" and/or wifi. I then set it to actively track her with updates every 3 minutes while she is out. you can change this Track mode from 3 min to 30 min intervals, I believe. Active tracking (you actually push the track button for this- you do not have to "actively track" and can just update the gps every now and then to spot check location) shuts itself off once the cat comes back into the safe/wifi zone.For us, active tracking is maybe 2-3 hours a night total now but that is just because I am super interested in where she goes and we recently moved to this address so everything is new. I foresee a pattern or routine emerging where she just kind of does the same cat things and I will active track less and less. When she comes home, I just take the whole collar off and pop the removable tracker part on the charger if needed. I at least make sure to do it when the app tells me the battery is below 60% which takes 3-4 days with our usage to get to that level.To circle back to the issue of would the battery last if the cat disappeared? well, probably. depending on the situation. The battery is supposed to last like 10-12 hours with constant use. But if you aren't Active tracking that whole time, you can conserve/prolong that battery considerably by just doing a spot-check track every so often to keep a general idea of location and saving the active track till you are actually trying to grab them.As far as accuracy- it seems pretty darn good. Every now and again, something freaks out in the GPS and in one second it will show her suddenly three streets over from where she was, but then immediately having returned to the starting point. It freaked me out, but it was a couple seconds and corrected itself. If you are actively tracking, especially in the shorter 3 minute intervals, the app will show a map of the area, with little data pinpoints showing her movements which is very cool. (and funny if they are just staying in one area, but stopping to sniff stuff every few feet or so) There can be a lag to get the first update when you turn the tracking on, but otherwise I haven't noticed any significant lag otherwise. I love it when I know she is about to walk in the cat door to the house before she sees us and we give her a super enthusiastic greeting to welcome her back. PARTY!I'll wrap this up for now, but I'll add some screenshots of the app interface and other little tidbits later if I remember to come back to this.