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Conference misery::feline_v1

Title:	Meower Power is Valuing Differences
Notice:	FELINE_V1 is moving 1/11/94 5pm PST to MISERY
Moderator:	MISERY::VANZUYLEN_RO

Created:	Sun Feb 09 1986
Last Modified:	Tue Jan 11 1994
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	5089
Total number of notes:	60366

200.0. "How to keep Kitty off the sofa" by SCOTCH::TAMIR () Wed Jan 22 1986 16:09

I heard something interesting this past Saturday on the PBS "People, Pets
& Dr. Mark" program.  Someone wrote in and asked the age-old question
"How can I keep my kitten off my sofa when I'm not home?".  Not that any
of us feline fans have ever had that problem before, but the answer he
gave was one I never heard of before.  You get a bunch of balloons and
cover the sofa (or whatever) with balloons.  You then take little kitty
over to the whatever and pop one of the balloons.  The noise will frighten
the kitty, without doing any real harm, and, in theory, kitty will never
go near the whatever again (hmmmm).  I think this might take some time
to reinforce, but it just might work.  Tacking balloons to a corner of
a chair the kitty likes to use as a scratching post might discourage that
behaviour as well.  The Ancient Chinese Kitty Water Torture (spray bottle)
works well when your home, so the balloons could be a great idea.  Cheap,
too!!  By the way, you leave the balloons on the whatever until kitty
gets the hint!  You could choose balloons to coordinate with the color
scheme of the room....Early American balloons, Traditional balloons,
Scandianvian balloons.......

Mary

T.R	Title	User	Date	Lines
200.1		VIRTUE::AITEL	`Thu Jan 23 1986 11:54`	5
	The only thing to beware of is balloon fragments. I have heard of cats choking on them. If you're not home, that could be dangerous. Otherwise, this sounds like a great idea. --Louise
200.2		PULSAR::CHAPMAN	`Thu Jan 23 1986 13:51`	12
	Last week, quite by accident, we learned about balloons. Our Blinkers loves the trash bag. Late at night he rips it open strewing trash all over the kitchen. There is never food type garbage in it -- but this is just a very fun game. We tried putting the trash under the sink, and lots of other things. What happened was that the more challange the more fun (and at 2:00 in the am more noise). We ended up taking the trash out every evening. I had to dispose of a dozen almost deflated balloons, that were left over from a "bouquet." and rather than pop them I just stuffed them in the trash. That night Blinkers had at it - and one of the balloons popped. He hasn't been\ near the trash bag in a week now. I wonder how long this will last.
200.3		PEN::KALLIS	`Thu Jan 23 1986 17:29`	8
	On the other hand: One of my cats, Merlin, is _smart_. He learned how to jimmy open closed-but- not-locked doors all by himself, for instance. If he discovered that a bed of balloons (like those festooning a sofa or windowsill) were soft to rest on, there might be yet anotrher problem.... Steve Kallis, Jr.
200.4		GWEN::SUTTON	`Fri Jan 24 1986 09:12`	5
	Yes, I can see him now: just waking up from a nice little nap on his bed of baloons, yawning, stretching, FLEXING HIS CLAWS........ you now have a cat Mel Brooks could have used in 'High Anxiety'... ;-> /Harry
200.5		HITECH::BLOTCKY	`Thu Feb 06 1986 01:37`	6
	re: .1 My sister's cat, who tries to eat EVERYTHING, got rather ill eating a balloon. He finally passed it, but it could have caused an intestinal blockage. Steve
200.6	NO BALLOONS FOR KITTY	PSGMKG::MINER	`Fri May 09 1986 14:52`	6
	As far as my kitty, Bill, is concerned, I am away all day and every piece of furniture is HIS, HIS, HIS. It would take a nuclear bomb balloon to keep him off, and, I agree, the frags. of an exploded balloon could raise havok with his insides. He did eat some glad wrap once (it had a piece of roast beef in it at one time) and that was a terrible ordeal for all involved.