OK, I’ll give you all a moment to get your minds out of the gutter.
Right. Done? Good.
My cat’s mental. And vindictive. She’s taken to chewing everything. The aerial on the cordless phones, the VGA cable on my monitor, the power cable on the paper shredder, the locking nut things on her carry-box… Oh, and she likes shiny things as evidenced by her quest to pick up screws in her paws and then attempt to eat them.
She has also decided that I can only get a certain amount of sleep at night. On Wednesday I was shattered so I went to bed an hour earlier than normal. Zonked out. All was fine until the cat woke me as usual.
At 6:30am. An hour before she normally starts clawing at my face. I don’t know about anyone else, but that close to the alarm going off anyway and I just can’t get back to sleep.
Does anyone know if I can buy a wristwatch for a cat and, more importantly, teach her to read the ******* thing?
Agh – you just reminded me. Sharon’s picked her up a chew toy and I meant to get it off her this weekend. Never mind.
KK isn’t that keen on catnip. The little sweets I got her are sniffed suspiciously before she tentatively eats them and she won’t go near the catnip bubbles.
Dog’s get more choice as they are more stupid & will play with stuff we humans present to them.
Whereas cats usually deign to sniff proffered toys (if you’re lucky) but may then totally ignore them / only play with them if you’re out of the room / continue to play with and chew whatever they please instead
Easy!
We had the same problem, but resolved it by shutting the cat in the living room downstairs at night.
Keep in mind that cats are naturally solitary creatures. They are perfectly happy on their own.
She only wakes you up because she wants food, not because she needs food.
There is a big difference between the two.
Feedback appreciated, but both have their failings in my circumstances.
Girl, I work all day so the cat is out all day. Therefore one can only assume that she’s awake the entire time. If not, then I’m not there to *keep* her awake so that’s a no-goer.
MBTB, my house has very few doors! The kitchen into the lounge is open, and the stairs lead straight into the lounge – all is open, no doors or anywhere to put them. Closing my bedroom door over results in the carpet being ripped up from outside. This noise wakes me up anyway and leaves a mess. *sigh*
Not trying to find fault in your suggestions, but they’d just not work for me!
Fix the kitchen door then babe… you keep saying you will!
How about buying her some (catnip?) toys that she can chew? Or giving her the bones (lamb, beef, pork, not chicken) leftover from dinner? That’ll keep her busy for a while…
I lock her in the kitchen overnight, I know what’ll happen. At least one electrical appliance will have the cord chewed through and/or there’ll be cat litter *everywhere*.
JJ – great idea! Although thaty stuff never stopped me when I was a kid (I like sour / bitter stuff), I can see it working on her. Like it!
Girl – as it happens, it is a small dog chew that Sharon picked up for KK. It seems that for every one cat toy/chew there are about 20 for dogs. Cats really get the crappy end of the “novelty goods” deal.
Mosh, the chew is in the bag with your birthday pressie… I knew you/I’d forget otherwise!
Ok, how about some doggie-style chews then?!
paint the cables with the vile tasting stuff you can get in chemists to discourage people from biting their nails – works a treat & gives extra bargain points for personal amusement at cat’s face when first trying to chew now not-so-fun cable – bwaa haa haaaaaa
ps. please notice how I resisted the temptation to smuttify up the conversation based on The Girl’s post!
There’s only one thing for it: you’ve got to keep HER up during the day, not allowing her to sleep. Yes. she’ll be pissed off at you and will moan miserably, but the upside is she’ll be too knackered to be her normal nocturnal self, thus allowing you a full night’s sleep.
This does work, but obviously not recommended long term – apart from the fact that it’s somewhat cruel – who wants a moody pussy?
Well, looks like you’ll just have to grin and bear it, mate!
I can appreciate the carpet-ripping scenario, our carpets are just as bad!
(Although the endless claw-snipping that the wife administers helps quite a bit. She gets him while he’s dozing, less likely to maim then. By time he’s fully awake, his claws are nearly all cut!)
I do wish we’d got him trained on the scratch-post, like all the books say…..
Yeah, a scratch post would be nice but mine’s past that stage where training would be useful, I fear. And of course, ratboy and ex-mrs-ratboy (surprise) obviously didn’t bother with training.
Thankfully, the sofa is a hand-me-down and *remarkably* click-resistant. It’s more the “chewing things” habit that worries me in case she gets hurt.
Agh – you just reminded me. Sharon’s picked her up a chew toy and I meant to get it off her this weekend. Never mind.
KK isn’t that keen on catnip. The little sweets I got her are sniffed suspiciously before she tentatively eats them and she won’t go near the catnip bubbles.
Dog’s get more choice as they are more stupid & will play with stuff we humans present to them.
Whereas cats usually deign to sniff proffered toys (if you’re lucky) but may then totally ignore them / only play with them if you’re out of the room / continue to play with and chew whatever they please instead
Easy!
We had the same problem, but resolved it by shutting the cat in the living room downstairs at night.
Keep in mind that cats are naturally solitary creatures. They are perfectly happy on their own.
She only wakes you up because she wants food, not because she needs food.
There is a big difference between the two.
Feedback appreciated, but both have their failings in my circumstances.
Girl, I work all day so the cat is out all day. Therefore one can only assume that she’s awake the entire time. If not, then I’m not there to *keep* her awake so that’s a no-goer.
MBTB, my house has very few doors! The kitchen into the lounge is open, and the stairs lead straight into the lounge – all is open, no doors or anywhere to put them. Closing my bedroom door over results in the carpet being ripped up from outside. This noise wakes me up anyway and leaves a mess. *sigh*
Not trying to find fault in your suggestions, but they’d just not work for me!
Fix the kitchen door then babe… you keep saying you will!
How about buying her some (catnip?) toys that she can chew? Or giving her the bones (lamb, beef, pork, not chicken) leftover from dinner? That’ll keep her busy for a while…
I lock her in the kitchen overnight, I know what’ll happen. At least one electrical appliance will have the cord chewed through and/or there’ll be cat litter *everywhere*.
JJ – great idea! Although thaty stuff never stopped me when I was a kid (I like sour / bitter stuff), I can see it working on her. Like it!
Girl – as it happens, it is a small dog chew that Sharon picked up for KK. It seems that for every one cat toy/chew there are about 20 for dogs. Cats really get the crappy end of the “novelty goods” deal.
Mosh, the chew is in the bag with your birthday pressie… I knew you/I’d forget otherwise!
Ok, how about some doggie-style chews then?!
paint the cables with the vile tasting stuff you can get in chemists to discourage people from biting their nails – works a treat & gives extra bargain points for personal amusement at cat’s face when first trying to chew now not-so-fun cable – bwaa haa haaaaaa
ps. please notice how I resisted the temptation to smuttify up the conversation based on The Girl’s post!
There’s only one thing for it: you’ve got to keep HER up during the day, not allowing her to sleep. Yes. she’ll be pissed off at you and will moan miserably, but the upside is she’ll be too knackered to be her normal nocturnal self, thus allowing you a full night’s sleep.
This does work, but obviously not recommended long term – apart from the fact that it’s somewhat cruel – who wants a moody pussy?
Well, looks like you’ll just have to grin and bear it, mate!
I can appreciate the carpet-ripping scenario, our carpets are just as bad!
(Although the endless claw-snipping that the wife administers helps quite a bit. She gets him while he’s dozing, less likely to maim then. By time he’s fully awake, his claws are nearly all cut!)
I do wish we’d got him trained on the scratch-post, like all the books say…..
Yeah, a scratch post would be nice but mine’s past that stage where training would be useful, I fear. And of course, ratboy and ex-mrs-ratboy (surprise) obviously didn’t bother with training.
Thankfully, the sofa is a hand-me-down and *remarkably* click-resistant. It’s more the “chewing things” habit that worries me in case she gets hurt.