I find it comical the differences in the cats in wearing a harness. Sometimes it could be the type of harness. A harness jacket has more fabric and the cat may find it bothersome. An H harness, to me, is the better of the H and figure 8. The figure 8 closes at the neck with one closure, while the H harness has two (neck and about the body. All you can do is keep trying to get the harness on. Raiden never laid down at all. He stood right up and walked around. Of course you make sure it's not on so tight that the cat can't breathe or move in it. But, I'd definitely keep trying. If the cat just lays there and doesn't fight the harness, I'd leave it on for a while. At some point, the cat is going to have to get up and see that wearing it isn't that bad and they can walk around wearing it. If they literally fight to get the harness off, they really aren't ready and may never be. I will say Raiden's previous owner told me he had tried to put a harness on Raiden early on in Raiden's life and it didn't work! I put a harness on him and everything was fine and we were out the door on our first walk in a matter of minutes.