Lesson 1: What works for other people may not work for you.
My sister and brother-in-law have two cats and like me, neither one of their cats are declawed. They had purchased a new dining room set that had cloth chairs and they obviously didn't want them to get ruined. Jason's solution was to buy a $30 motion detector from Radio Shack that set off an alarm when tripped. It worked like a charm for the older cat and the younger cat didn't seem to notice the chairs. They were set.
I went online and read the reviews for the motion detector and they were not very positive, but since I had a first-hand account of how well the product worked, I set off to buy this perfect cat deterrent.
It did not work on my cats. At all. My cats sniffed the device and then went into the room. The alarm isn't very loud and there is a 10 second delay. My cats attention span is shorter than that and I needed something immediate to reprimand them for going in the room.
Back to the drawing board.
I know I can hang a screen door and that will allow us to hear/see what's going on in the room and also keep the cats out, but I was on a mission. Since I knew there was a solution that would work in a pinch, I hunted for an alternative.
Lesson 2: Use your own wisdom. You know your animals better than the marketing gurus out there.
There are mats that emit an electric shock kind of like static electricity. I don't think it's unsafe for the animal at all, but looking at it made me skeptical. Cats can jump. I just knew my cats would associate the shock with the mat and jump right on over it. It may work for a counter top, but not the floor. I was not even going to give it a try.
Lesson 3: When something shows promise, introduce it slowly and give it time.
I came across something I though might work: a can of compressed air that is set off by motion. Craig and I headed to PetSmart yesterday and purchased the product. When we got home, we immediately set it up in front of the door. We cracked the door and angled the can out. We camped out maybe two minutes and Hutch was the first victim. He went straight up to the can and sniffed it and got a face full of air. He flung himself up and back and ran away, very scared. I have to admit that Craig and I were more than amused. It was absolutely hilarious to watch. Craig got all giddy and told me the $35 for the product was worth it right then and there. He waited to watch what Starsky would do and I handed him the camera before I went downstairs. I soon heard the familiar sound of the air coming out of the can and Craig laughing.
We'll continue to open the door more and more and hopefully the cats will be so scared of the blast of air that they will avoid the room entirely. What's so great is that they are curious together a lot of times. When one cat gets scared, it scares the other. I can see this working. I know I'll have to leave the can there once the cats are trained, but I will be able to turn it off. If the cats see the can, they will steer clear. I also know that when baby girl K starts to get mobile, that can will have to move, but I'll deal with that when the time comes. I really do think we may have a solution!Oh, and notice the dust on the railing? It's from a hole in the wall/ceiling...
Craig is doing a great job repairing the damage we inflicted to our house while attempting to get the box springs upstairs. It's going to take a lot of mud to repair this damage!
Phase 1:
Phase 2:
The weekend rounded out nicely. The cats are getting trained and soon there will be no evidence of the chaotic run we had with our box springs.
3 comments:
Oh. my. goodness.
This post had Ben and I both cracking up! Please, you have to take a video of this!
Nice. Other things that don't work are sticky tape and "hormone" spray. And the electric water fountains. It's true, you know your animals better than pet novelty marketing jerks. Anthony just KNEW Gracie would love the fountain and it would keep us from having to turn the faucet on at her demand, but I took one look and knew better. $65 later, it sits brand new and unused.
Let me know how the canned air works with the door open. Since we're down to one cat from three, i'm not as concerned but may change my mind in the future.
The sticky tape works for my cats...but I have to put it everywhere. I recently put it on the window ledge to keep the cats from getting behind the curtains and tearing them up. Worked like a charm. My cats don't like that tape!
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