like i said above, cats typically tend to "walk on walls, fences, enter other's homes etc" ... the cat strapped with a watch-sized device could be used to monitor/record (not necessary this proj).

cameras and microphones are very cheap these days.

of course if one's not bothered about privacy, then the issue doesn't exist (magic)

Maybe the cat decides to live a double life with some other family and doesn't want the first one to know about it?