I've had both of my dogs microchipped and whilst I'm fully aware the day may come where I will be extremely thankful that I did this, I also feel extremely guilty for doing so. Both times I stood watching as two little puppies had a gigantic needle shoved in the back of their neck and I can still hear the cries and yelps of pain to this day. I keep saying I will get my three cats microchipped too but in all honestly, I don't think I will. I don't think I could handle that needle going into a much smaller kitty!

To be on the safe side though each of my cats wear a name tag with their name and my phone number engraved. In fact, thanks to very cheap prices on ebay, I have a whole stash of them just in case they ever get lost! For my cats to wear these though they obviously require a collar and all three of my lovely felines wear Pets At Home Cat Collar's.

The collars come in a wide range of different colours and patterns from the frankly ridiculous looking bright pink with diamantes to the more sensible plain black collar. I like to buy collars which 'go' with my cat's fur. Ollie, the big fluffy light ginger tabby, wears a pale yellow one with a white trim. Yuki, the dark grey tabby wears a black and white criss/cross type patterned collar whilst Meg, the black/white/ginger tortoise shell girl wears the collar displayed in the Dooyoo picture, a nice red and white gingham laced one. You'll also find these collars in every colour and pattern inbetween too so whatever style you wish for your cat to wear, you'll probably find it here.

The collars vary in price depending on style. The plain and simple collars, such as Ollies yellow one, are priced at £2. The ones with a nice pattern like Meg and Yuki's cost £3 and the (what I see as) awful ones completed with big plastic diamonds and the likes, are priced at £5. Currently these collars are on a three for two offer on the Pets at Home website too.

The collars come backed on a very pale yellow coloured sheet of cardboard. The Pets at Home logo is displayed on the top along with the name of the product and a little drawing of a partially unrolled ball of wall at the top for added decoration. Two holes, on midway down and one at the very bottom of the cardboard, are punched out which allows the collar to be attached. This open typed packaging allows you to fully see the collar before buying which I like.

The collars measure at 1cm thick and have an adjustable length of 21-34cm which I find to be a decent size range. All three of my cats are very different sizes with Meg being rather small, Yuki being around 'average' size for an adult male cat and Ollie being just huge (but not overweight I should point out)! The collar may be on the large size for small kittens but I think it'd fit most by the time they were big and old enough to be going outside anyway.

Adjusting the collars length is easily done simply by sliding back and forth the bra strap like plastic buckle. I find it doesn't provide too much resistance so you're not struggle to loosen or tighten the collar but it's strong enough for my cats not to be able to adjust the size just through wearing the collar.

As with (I hope anyway) all cat collars these are fitted with a safety fastener. Two bits of plastic which snap open should your cats get their collars caught. I find this fastener does pop open easily when forced but, again, isn't so weak that the collar does pop right off as soon as my cats get up or anything. Ollie and Meg have only ever had two of these each and that's simply because I replaced them through general wear and tear so they obviously stay on if the collar doesn't get caught. Yuki on the other hand likes to prove that these do come off if they get caught though as he's come home without his about five times now! However he does often try and get through the tiny bathroom window when it's only slightly open so he's obviously got a habit of going through spaces too small for him.

Each collar has a little silver bell attached to it which is another feature I like, there's definitely been a significant drop in the number of birds and rodents my cats bring back between them since they had a little warning bell attached! The bell is attached to the collar via a little loop which allows me to easily swivel it around if needed although rarely makes its way to the back of my cat's neck or anything. This little loop is also where I attach my cats name tag so these collars are perfectly fine for that purpose too.

The collars are really easy to fit, Meg always kicks up the most fuss when I put a collar on her and even she only takes about a minute to be fitted with her new collar which makes my life easier! Just remember to check the size of the collar! You should be able to fit two fingers between the collar and your cats neck and it should be checked regularly, obviously even more so if you have a growing kitten. These collars also come with a warning that they should be removed when using liquid flea treatments so the chemicals can't react with the material and/or buckle.

I personally find these to be really nice collars for my cats. They're reasonably cheap and, in my experience at least, last about a year and a half to two years before they need replacing through general wear and tear. There's plenty of designs to pick from they're generally of a decent quality with some nice and useful features. I can't fault them really!