I received this collar in mid December 2011, and my cat has been wearing it for almost 2 months now, and we've had no problems. Here's my review in detail: Break-away - The break-away clip is very strong, and it takes a good pull from me to disconnect. I've probably opened/closed it a dozen times in the 2 months I've had it, and there's no loss of strength. My kitty has not been able to pop it off herself so far. Stiffness - Like some other reviews I read for Red Dingo collars, this collar was pretty stiff when I got it. At first she scratched the collar a lot, and the collar stretched a bit so that when you disconnect it, it makes a arc instead of a straight line (with the disconnect closed, it looks like a cross section of a cone). The collar eventually got less stiff and settled in this shape. My kitty still scratches, but with decreasing frequency and intensity. Collar loop - I saw reviews that since the collar is so stiff, the fold-over part where you can use to shorten the collar, sticks out in a loop, and their kitties pull on the loop while they scratch, choking themselves. I've observed my cat closely, but she never tugged or pulled on the loop, just scratched. Once the collar got softer, the loop disappeared and the collar settled around her neck. Pattern fabric - The design was very cute, and I chose the circadelic brown pattern because my lynx point kitty has soft brown stripes and light blue eyes, and the collar complemented her perfectly. However, after all that scratching, the woven pattern quickly unraveled, and combined with her occasionally licking the collar while cleaning herself, the pattern can no longer be seen under the brown/blue fuzz. I'm sort of disappointed, and it seems there's no way to prevent this fabric from unraveling. The upside is I haven't seen threads coming off of it, so it's probably not gonna come off completely. And the pattern is separately sewn on top of the collar material, so it doesn't hurt the integrity of the collar itself. Bell - The bell sounds very crisp and not really annoying, and still loud enough to tell me where she is. The bell on this collar is a dark brass color, and also complemented my kitty. The paint on it is getting scuffed by her tag, but I think this is also inevitable. I haven't seen giant pieces of paint coming off so far, like I've seen on some cheap bells like this, so that's a plus. Aside from the fuzzy fabric issue, I really loved this collar and bought one for my sister, whose cat figured out how to pop off her first collar, and started taking it off every 30 seconds. My sister bought a second collar (also from PetCo), and her cat again took it off within minutes. So far the Red Dingo collar has stayed put, and her kitty hasn't had choking problems. We are both very happy with Red Dingo!
