For what it's worth, Yuri and his siblings are surprisingly easy to take for walks. You just need to understand that they're cats, not dogs, and different rules apply.

We've been really happy with cat harnesses from https://www.kittyholster.com/, and I've had the best luck with retractable dog leashes.

When we first got the harnesses, the cats were *hilarious*. We'd put a harness on and the cat would just stand there, frozen, and eventually fall over stiff-legged to the side. Then we'd take the harness off and give them a treat and some attention. It took a few rounds of this before they could wear the harnesses without doing some sort of fainting goat impression. After that, we took them out in the back yard on leashes and mostly just let them explore. Our cats are only allowed outside on a leash with supervision, and they *loved* getting to go out and smell everything.

After that, we started working them up to walks around the neighborhood. Those have always been tricky because our neighborhood is overrun with (a) pet dogs and (b) wild rabbits. They add equal but opposite drama to "take your cat for a walk" sessions.

The thing about cats is that they're both predators and prey. They want to hunt, but they need to hide from bigger predators. So walking down the middle of the road on a leash isn't going to be comfortable for most cats.

We've had much better luck with parks. Every time I take Yuri to our neighborhood forest park, he's really skittish and wants to hide under the car and underneath every little shrub until we make it into the trees, and then his stress level drops away to practically nothing.

After that, it's mostly just a matter of practice and learning to communicate with your cat. Yuri has a surprisingly large vocabulary for a cat ("ok", "no", "wait", "outside", "inside", "patrol", and the names of the people in the household all get distinct reactions), so I talk to him and give small tugs on the leash to let him know which direction I want to go. If he disagrees, then he'll pull back, but most of the time he'll follow my lead. And when he expresses a strong opinion, I'll usually follow along. He's a cat, not a dog. He's not in it for praise, but he's open to negotiation.