Shu, the rat, has a habit of hopping up onto the little chest of drawers that sits under my (thank God wall-mounted) flatscreen tv. He’s eyed the narrow 2″ shelf I have on the wall above, with a couple of cheap model sailing ships, since he was a kitten.
Well, yesterday he made the move and jumped to the top of the flatscreen tv, an inch or less wide—before I chased him out.
Today he did the jump for the shelf above before I could stop him and he knocked one of the already battered sailing ships off and behind the bureau.
His name is Mud. Not Mudd. Mud.
We are going to have to re-arrange my room, and Jane and I have consulted and I’m getting an apothecary chest for all knicknacks, small notebooks, pens, pencils, glasses, screen cleaners, glasses case, kitty claw trimmers, DVDs, program discs, screen cleaning implements, keyboard cleaning implements, and random scraps of paper and notes I have around my work chair…So there, Mr. Mud. The bureau under the telly is going to become a rarely accessed storage behind my chair, where I can put stuff I really don’t want to toss but can’t find a use for…and there will be NO route to the tv top and my storm-tossed model tall ships.
my problem is cats chewing on various cables. They’ve ruined a Firewire cable I use for my camcorder, my iPod headphones, several wall-mounted adapters for various radios (I am not amused, because these things are expensive), telephone cables, CAT5 network cables (no, that’s not a pun), and yet, never seem to touch the regular electrical cords going to the wall outlets…….for which I’m glad, because I don’t want to come home to find one of them locked up behind the couch with current sizzling through their brains.
I need to get the cable loom (in the automotive department at Wal-Mart), which is used to protect electrical wires inside an automobile’s engine compartment. It’s not expensive….just isn’t big enough for all of the cables.
Can’t give you a trade name, but I’ve used flexible (BPA loaded?) plastic tubes of various diameters but wall thicknesses of about 1mm, that have a spiraling cut in the sides. They’re useful for collecting several cables into one. I suspect it might also provide some protection from feline predators.
I think that you must mean one that no two legged person can discern. Feline Personages seem to find spaces to walk, perch upon, and leap to which seem improbable at best. In other words, if you have to move a chair or bed, move it away, and still, don’t trust it!
Goober is generally quite fine about not chewing or doing other such things, for which, I’m glad. He does, unfortunately, still jump up on counters (i.e., kitchen counters) which is potentially unsafe and not clean. Sigh.
Smokey, Shu’s virtual cousin, is…a brat about some things, and (so far) won’t be dissuaded.
He still tried to chew cords. — I think I might have gotten through to him last time that this is Not A Good Idea. Like Joe, (1) It is unsafe to chew cords; and (2) It is expensive to replace a cord or equipment if a certain My-Name-Is-Trouble chews them.
Smokey also jumps, but I tend not to have things out where they could be knocked over.
But (1) I have myself knocked over drinks before and (2) There was Goober’s infamous “I want to be with you!” jump onto the desk whereupon I’d (foolishly) left a glass of iced tea… near a laptop… which became a very effective doorstop in seconds thereafter. Sigh.
Not accident-related, Goober still lets Smokey nose him out of his food bowl. Goober is slightly better about it now, but I don’t think he’ll ever get tired of it and whack Smokey enough to get him to stop. Goober is not the kind to be assertively, insistently aggressive and back it up. He’ll defend himself, but that’s about it. Smokey is the kind who will push, very assertive. — And I tried feeding them in separate rooms, or closing a door and using separate rooms. “Hey, buddy, you’re all the way in here? Say, did you get goodies I didn’t? Let me have some (all)!” Closing the door? Oh, dear, massive distress from both sides! “My buddy is locked in/out! I’ve got to get out / get my buddy out! Let him out, human!” Heh. No matter who was in and who was out. That’s the thing: They squabble, but they do like each other. (And they can be an effective double-team on the human….)
Goober makes up for himself in persistence and cleverness, and a sense of humor, for what he lacks in assertiveness.
I love the little guys very much, but there are occasional habits that I really wish they’d stop. I don’t love those bad habits.
At least, however, it is never dull. The level of smarts is sometimes impressive
An inexpensive cord protector: get an appropriate length of spaflex, that papery thin ribbed hose they sell at hardware stores with intermittent smooth sections for cutting. Cut down one side with scissors, poke the cords into it—viola! instant cord security and organization.
If the offending critter persists, a heavier grade of hose might help.
the cable loom is pre-split, and comes in 5 or 6 foot sections….I’ll see if I can find the spaflex, though.
I might have to take an old garden hose and use that (for the cables, not on the cat!). 😀
Amazon has cable looms in different diameters and different lengths, at very inexpensive prices. I got some from there and was much pleased with same. If you’re a prime member, you can get 3-day shipping for free.
Sammy had a thing about High Places, but at least she didn’t chew cables. (She preferred going out and hunting. Or walking through the trees, about ten feet up.) She once jumped straight up off the floor and got her front paws on the phone cord, which was at least four feet up (I was holding it to keep it out of her reach – I thought).
You gotta love ’em. But Shu is just a different breed of cat. He growls and hisses and strikes our friends—when you visit here, PLEASE don’t pet Shu! He’ll let you pet him until he gets nervous, then decide you’re an invader—doesn’t do it with us, unless we’ve denied him something he really wants. I tell you. he’s so sweet—when he’s being sweet. Fur the texture of a dog’s, stiff and short, levitates instead of jumps, and weighs many times what you think a cat his size (small) ought to. Y’know that 18% muscle weighs more than fat does? Iron must figure somewhere in his constitution, because muscle alone can’t account for his poundage.
Half Bengal. That’s supposed to be a crossbreeding with an Asian Wildcat. I think they may have got the wrong Asian cat involved.
Post-lunch, which is what he wanted—he’s been sweet as can be. It’s a case of “I’m on the hunt. You won’t like me til you’ve fed me. Then I’ll give you kitty-kisses and be nice.” I have the water pistol ready.
Problem is, he’ll only transfer his gamesmanship to that: once he knows you have a water pistol, he’ll do things to MAKE you shoot at him and then try to outrace the stream.
We do love him dearly. We believe we have, in our two cats, Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley [Pride and Prejudice.] I leave it to you to guess which is which.
Our gray cat likes to jump from the sink to the top of the shower enclosure, and then pace around up there. nothing to knock off. Our black cat waits until the day i am working at home, and on a conference call, and then he jumps on the mantel and knocks all the zuni fetish animals off on to the floor. he NEVER does it otherwise.
Yep…that’s “Hi. You’re talking. Can we discuss lunch? Or petting me?”
My yellow tabby tends to get upset when he is not the center of my attention. He usually takes it out on whatever he can knock off of something high, mostly light items, keys, pens, papers etc. His latest ‘knock off’ involved an $800 Nikon camera/lens combo I had foolishly set on the kitchen table while I edited the memory card contents on the computer. I heard the scrape of the camera across the table and spun around in time to see the camera and lens parting ways rather violently as it hit the floor. The camera body survived, but the lens did not.
Needless to say he stayed hidden from sight for quite some time afterwards, my reaction wasn’t the kind of attention he wanted. I have to say he is incredibly strong. That camera and lens combo is at least 2lbs and he shoved it from about the middle of the table to the edge, about two feet in distance.
I thought you had the cat towers they could climb on.
The curtains are closed because of the cold weather: we have blackout lining that also insulates, and they don’t like to be near the cold windows—which is why they’re sitting on my bureau: they can see out from there without being near the glass. I think we need to start opening those living room curtains, however.
Yay- I’m out of spam-filter jail! I visit here daily but rarely post. The cat mischief thread is timely. I have a 4 month old kitten and he’s driving me crazy. I’d planned to get two young cats in warm weather for outside because our farm cat numbers have dwindled over the years. However, a tiny tuxedo kitten was dropped at my MIL’s house around Thanksgiving and it’s been too cold ever since to put it outside for any length of time. His room is the bathroom and now he’s learned to open the drawers and take out anything he wants. He loves q-tips and I found about 30 of them under the scale when I moved it to vacuum and mop. Next, I went in to find my hairbrush *in* the litterbox. Yuck! He has lots of toys and we do bring him to other parts of the house when he can be watched. I keep him with me in the office most days so he can bask in the afternoon sunbeams. Yesterday he discovered how to turn off the power button on the power strip that serves everything on my desk and he loves to pull the mouse off the desk from underneath. He’s not very cuddly and he’s so strong and fast I can’t keep up! CJ, he’s inordinately heavy like your cat-all muscle and fierceness. If I survive until spring it will be a minor miracle.
Zorro and Little Brother are playing tag through the screen door: LB will bound up and thump the door, then run away. Sometimes Zorro will counterthump before he can get too far, then the pattern will repeat. The trouble is that it is a sliding door, and LB gets enough of a head of steam that he can bounce it open a bit and let in the bugs — or possibly let out Zorro.
I cannot go into the bathroom without a (feline) audience. Try brushing your teeth while two cats are trying to drink from the sink tap — at the same time — and have to have a boxing match to settle who goes first. Or taking a shower with one on the toilet lid and one on the lid of the clothes hamper. They follow me from room to room, and why not? I’m the best show in the house.