Conference misery::feline_v1

    No, he is a normal pussycat.  You can try putting those decorative
    stones over the dirt on your potted plants to make them less
    attractive.  Paper bags and cardboard boxes are Major Cat Toys, whether
    "snacked on" or just "hidden in."  I'll bet he's snacking on the
    corners of books also, which you can protect by not leaving them laying
    around.
    

    Actually, I should probably have added that you might want to have the
    vet check his teeth just in case this is a symptom of some problem (the
    vet will have done this already if he's been in for a general checkup),
    but what you describe is really common normal behavior.
    

    Hee hee hee...
    
    Sorry Mike, I just find this all so amusing.  Welcome to the world of
    cats!   Karen, regarding decorative stones, my gang use them as 
    miniature hockey pucks and shoot them hither and skither across the
    apartment...  :-)  Any item left unsecured is fair game....
    
    Some days you will look all over for an item (be it a piece of
    jewelry, the sponge from the sink, your eyeglasses) only to find
    it in the most unlikely places .... or in their food dish!  Why
    do cats insist on placing their newfound treasures in their food
    dishes?  
    
    As for affection, two of mine fight over who will be the first to 
    jump in my arms when I reach home, while the other two will mew at my
    feet in frustration.  
    
    I don't know what to tell you Mike.  You may have to do what a lot of
    us do and just make the house "cat-proof" for a while until he grows
    up!  Remove plants, dry flower arrangements, anything that can be 
    construed as a toy or a jungle-gym).
    
    Oh, in case you celebrate Christmas?  Be sure to wire the tree to
    the wall in case your baby decides it would be a great thing to climb!
    
    Good luck,
    
    Nancy (and her gang of four)

    And be careful not to use tinsel which can be fatal to cats if eaten. 
    also keep an eye out to be sure the wiring for the lights isn't being
    chewed on (for chewers of electrical wiring I resort to putting tabasco
    sauce on it;  this dries to be not at all stickey or noticeable, and
    while the prospect of a cat reacting to tabasco sauce is unpleasant,
    electrocution is worse.  Actually, I suspect they have an acute enough
    sense of smell that they notice it and don't lick it.)
    

Will they really grow out of eating and destroying plants and dried flower
arrangements?  (please?)

Jill who's cat-free-zone is in her tiny 1/2 bath, with not much room left to,
er, bathe? :-)

    Re: .5
    
    No, I don't  think so.  And an added problem is that some plants and
    dried plant items are poisonous.  Some partial solutions (in addition
    to keeping anything poisonous absolutely out of the house) are putting
    dried stuff way up on the wall, for example, as a decoration, rather
    than in a vase, and providing substitutes, such as those dishes of
    grass they sell in pet stores.  I have a Boston fern that's so large
    that three cats can munch on its fronds without the damage even being
    noticed.
    

    Check the keywords PLANTS, BEHAVIOR_MODIFICATION, and BEHAVIOR_PROBLEMS 
    for more information about dealing with things like this.
    
    To do that, type "show key/full ___________ (<----keyword you want to
    search)" at the notes prompt.
    
    Jo

    For any very large potted plants...just lay pine cones on the
    dirt...and they won't even go near it!   Worked for me!!  As
    far as dried flowers...I gave up on them a few years ago.  They
    haven't touched my books...and I have two bookcases.  (thank god)    
    
    Because we have multiple cats...I always have paper bags, boxes,
    baskets, furry beds just hanging around on the floor for them to 
    play in and sleep.
    
    Good luck...your kitty will calm down somewhat!!
    
    Sandy
    

    We were having problems with plant digging, too.  I read an article
    that suggested sprinkling ginger on a few of the leaves...tried it last
    week.  Monday morning I cought Silverado on the plant counter, just
    sitting there furiously licking her nose.  Since her episode with
    ginger-breath, no kittens have been near the plants.  
    
    But my fingers remain crossed.
    
    Jo-Ann

    Maybe I should have tried ginger on my plants!  Someone told me to mix
    lemon with water and spray the plant leaves....that cats hate citrus
    and would run in the other direction.  It didn't phase my three one
    bit.  They continued to race across the room, leap into the air, grab
    the branches of my fig tree, and swing.....then they'd leap into the
    pot and dig in the dirt, chew on the trunk....needless to say, the
    plant died.
    
    Bear used to find great amusement in gettting up on the kitchen table
    and leaping smack in the middle of my silk flower arrangement....he'd
    then race away with one of the flowers in his mouth.....soon my poor
    arrangement was looking very very bare....
    
    So now I don't have plants either.  I have lots of unique carvings
    and bowls of brightly colored wooden fruit and things that they are
    not interested in in the least.
    
    We are all very happy....
    
    Nancy

Thank you all for your advise ... first i think i will try the ginger on the 
plants. Yes last christmas he was only 4 months old and had a ball jumping in 
and out of the tree. playing with the ornaments he knocked off.. thanks again

mike

    My silk flower arrangements all have cat fur on them.  I don't even
    bother to remove it anymore...
    
    Herbie and Taja eat the palm and ficus trees.  Taja never ate
    the plants until he saw Herbie doing it.  I used to get mad, but now
    just ask them if they would like any salad dressing with it... :^)
    
    -Roberta
    

    
       Well for plant pots I have a great truc that works.
    
       Take a piece of cardboard and cut it to make it round like the size
       of the pot above the dirt , than make a cut in the circle to be able
       to pass the foot of the plant in the middle and VOILA! YOU'LL NEVER
       HAVE PROBLEM.
    
        Jean.

    My TaiTai is an old hand at Christmas trees...he has two favorite
    ornaments...both of which are felt Santa figures..I have learned to put
    them on the lower limbs so he doesn't have to climb so high to get
    them...He weighs 14 lbs and we found him halfway to the top a couple
    years ago...yes, the tree was wired on two sides to the walls and we
    weight the bottom...This is Figaro's first Christmas with us..if you
    remember he was a feral we adopted in March last year and the vet
    guessed he was 3-4 months old.  It should be really interesting....he
    eats ferns, will not leave a water dish right side up...have a very
    heavy ceramic flat bottomed dish and he can't tip it...so...he scoots
    is across the floor..no easy trick as its on a rubber bath mat..and
    plays in it until its empty...I keep water in the powder room sink for
    Tai so he always has water...It's wonderful to see how they love each
    other...didn't take so long before it was community grooming time..they
    curl up together on the rocker (on the end of my Irish patterned white
    afghan which took me a year to make)...it's nice to know they enjoy the
    finer things..... What would I do without them...

    
    
    	Speaking of Christmas Trees - brings to mind a very bad accident
    	that happen to my neighbors cat.  Please do not leave breakable
    	ornaments at t he bottom of the tree.  Their cat was palying with
    	one and it broke and somehow the cat got cut.  The glass ornament
    	cut an artery and the cat almost bleed to death - so it can be
    	very serious.  Please be aware of this for the safety of our
    	"little" ones. 
    
    	I've collect mostly wooden, cloth etc. handmade tree oranments,
    	so the worse that can happen is that they fall off, but for some
    	reason my two Siamese haven't been a terror when it comes to the
    	tree, I think alot has to do with the fact that it is an
    	artifical tree - no real trunk to climb etc. or smell to attract
    	them to it.  They do play with a few at the bottom, but nothing
    	we can't handle.  They seem to be a bigger pain when I'm decorating
    	the tree and all the ornament boxes and tissue paper is on the
    	floor - they're into everything, checking and exploring.
    
    	-dee