Lead not acting properly with tamed cats

When I tie a lead to a tamed cat, (I know it sounds cruel)

What I expected to happen:
The lead should be attached to the cat's neck

What did happen:
The lead tied to empty space above the cat's neck

Shouldn't be a mod's problem because I haven't installed any mods that interfere and change the gameplay experience.

By the way just a suggestion:
The lead wrapped around the fence is REALLY ugly when there's just a tiny creature as a cat attached to it. I mean look at the 474kb screenshot......