Conference misery::feline_v1

My cat Sebastian (Bas), does something simular.  He shreds the carpet in front
of our bedroom door though.  I've tried spraying a paper towel with cat 
repellent, but don't always remember since it doesn't happen every morning.
Bas tends to like to do his clawing at about 4 or 5 am.  He is real good about
not scratching other areas of the house, and uses his scratching post regularly.

We have gotten two kittens this summer also.  The tabby, Scooter, couldn't
be bothered with that trick, but the all-black kitten thinks he's in training!
The black kitten, Xerox ( so named for being a duplicate copy of Bas, who is
all black and from the same mother/line ), does everything Bas does.  I caught
both of them one morning taking turns at the carpet!!

One of the biggest problems I have with this is that they know it gets my 
attention.  If it gets mommy up, we get food/affection/outside etc...   Its a 
tough situation.

I'd like to hear some suggestions also.  The cat repellent seems to work, but 
the reason it works (that horrible smell!) is the same reason I don't like to
do it!!

Kathi.

    Have you tried the ole "Spray Bottle" routine???
    
    purrs
    cin
    

    Aja used to do the same thing.
    
    My solution? I just leave the door open a crack. If she can get
    into the bedroom she has no need to claw on the door. It appears
    she was just trying to find me, for no particular reason!!
    
    Edd

	Josh and  Becky  seem to have the same habit. (It's nice to know
    I'm not alone :-)). Unfortunately, I am also following this note for
    helpful  hints.  The spray bottle won't work, they both love to play
    with  water  and think it's a game. They sleep in the same room with
    me (so their scratching is so they can get OUT of the room, not in).
    also  in  the  room at night are their litter box and their food, so
    they  can't  be  wanting those. If I let them out, they shred toilet
    paper and make a general mess. If they just ran around my room, that
    would be preferable to their picking at the carpet!  


	Becky loves  to  open  closet doors, (produces the same annoying
    noise  as  picking  at  the carpet) so that both she and Josh end up
    inside  on  a  shelf  with  my  clothes  on the floor. Not a desired
    action!  I have taken to putting bricks in front of the closet doors
    at  their  joints  (they're the type that fold) and that helps some,
    but  I'm  at a loss as to how to stop the picking at the hall to the
    door!


	Any thoughts will be appreciated.



				    Kathy

	P.S. They  do  have  a scratching post and tons of toys that are
    also in the bedroom.

    My Pip goes through phases with toilet paper, sometimes shreading,
    othertimes grabbing the end in her mouth and running all over the
    house, often unrolling half of it. I found that I was able to
    stop this by wrapping a small washcloth around the toilet paper
    and fasioning it with a clothpin.
    
    Deb
    

    Gee, I thought I had the only cat who liked to climb into the closet!
    The closet has sliding doors.  The Fickle likes to pull at the bottom
    corner of the front door of the closet until she can get her paw
    in there, and pull the door open far open to climb inside and take
    a nap on my shoes!  She hasn't shown any interest in pulling things
    off hangers or otherwise wreaking havoc, so it doesn't bother me
    much except the racket she makes while trying to get the door to
    move the first quarter of an inch or so; I don't mind cat hair on
    my shoes, since there isn't any way to avoid it anyhow!

re: toilet paper

We fasten a piece of naugahyde 5" x 12" with one end between the holder and 
the place it's mounted (ie, loosen the holder, slip in the naugahyde, 
tighten the holder) so it drapes over the roll.  The cats haven't yet 
figured it out.

The only comments we get are from visitors who typically say "Pretty coarse 
T.P. at this house!"

Ray

    re: .6

	They like to open the closet cuz they like to perch on the shelf
    that's  higher  than  anything else and it has sweaters on it and it
    makes  a  nice warm, cozy, protected sleeping place. The only reason
    the  clothes end up on the floor is cuz it's so hard to jump 5+ feet
    straight  up in the closet and not hit anything. They grab on to the
    clothes and use them for 'ladders' so they can make it to the top.

	And then  when  they  burrow  in  for a nice long nap, they push
    everything  off  the  shelf  and  onto  the  floor  to make room for
    themselves.

	Oh, the  joys  of  waking  up  to  the  crash of your belongings
    falling against the closet door!!


			Kathy

  If I leave my bedroom door open she scratches on my closet door.
  She has also been known to jump from the back of my waterbed,
  which is the bookcase type, into the middle of the bed to make
  a big ~wave~!  then takes off running...
  
  Bonnie

    As I say to my spouse fairly often, boy, it's a good thing I love
    cats!
    
    Nebula is not very interesting in napping on shoes, and neither
    cat has discovered that the closet has TWO shelves full of cosy
    sweaters.  They can't see up there from the shoes, and haven't (YET)
    tried to climb up the clothes.
    
    Both cats every once in a while will go after toilet paper, especially
    if they have been left alone for a weekend or something.  On time
    I returned home to find that they had not only dragged the whole
    roll that was on the roller all over everywhere, but had also pried
    the cabinet door open, taken out the spare roll, and unrolled it,
    too!  It's really amazing how much paper there is on two rolls of
    toilet paper!  It was also a good thing there was more in the storeroom
    downstairs to  put out after I picked up the mess.
    
    Sometimes they do the paper towels, too.  This gets them in trouble
    because in order to shred paper towels, kitty has to cross the
    forbidden territory of the kitchen counter.
    
    Good thing I love cats...

I'm not going to offer cute stories about how my Snuggs used to shred the
closet door because they weren't cute and the terrorist activities she
tried were not allowed.

What you need is some aversion therapy.  All you've been doing so far is
giving the little bully exactly what he/she wants.  Just remember:  we do
not negotiate with terrorists!!!!

Rinse out a soda can, dry it very well, put 10 pennies into it, and put
masking tape over the hole.  Make yourself 1 or 2 of these bombs.  How
many you need depends on how hard your particular 'nut' is to crack.

When he/she starts the unwelcome scratching, let the wall closest to her
have it with one of these bombs... It doesn't have to be thrown hard.
Sometimes just a light roll will do it.

The noise will scare the beejeesus out of the cat and usually just once
is enough.  You don't have to hit him/her, but you have to catch him/her
in the act.

If the door is shut, fling the bomb against the door.  It's very effective!
And the soft aluminum will bend before your door will.

As a person who cherished morning sleep on weekends, it was invaluable in
showing my black little pal what her boundaries were.

If you have a real test case, several bombings will be required.  I found
I only had to do it once.... Once, when we had guests, she tried it again
and got the same results.  She never did it again.

Good memory on that cat.

Let them save the cute behavior for when you can really appreciate it.

Bugsy

    I don't use the pennies in the can solution anymore because my cats
    became ultra sensitive to loud noises.  Nothing more annoying than
    having a cat claw your chest as it dashes into hiding every time
    the phone rings, or a door slams, or you run the vacumm, or blow
    dryer.  I prefer my cats to be more relaxed.  
    
    If done correctly, the spray bottle can be effective even on cats
    that like water.  If accompanied by a firm NO!!!, they will get
    the message.
    
    JoAnn

    After ten years of having cats and a water bed, disaster finally
    struck at our house.  After dragging ourselves home from a late
    night of last minute christmas shopping, Ken and I returned home
    to find that the waterbed hadn't survived the day.
    
    All of this just two days after we took out the guest room to make
    a cat room.  That is gratitude for you!  
    
    At the bottom of the liner we found a half eaten peacock feather.
    They must have put it there for save keeping and then had trouble
    "digging" it out.
    
    We slept on the floor in sleeping bags for 3 days.
    
    Jo Ann

    see Note 106.16 for more Devil Play!!!!!!!