Bad Kitty!
Okay, so being a pet owner isn’t exactly the easiest thing in the world! I didn’t really expect it to be easy, but it can be downright frustrating at times! I’m a neat, clean person to begin with, so having a cat that tracks litter and all sorts of other things all through the house is a challenge. I’m constantly having to clean up after Smokey, who has yet to learn to wipe his feet 
Also, Smokey thinks my Christmas decorations are his personal playground. I got a 6.5 foot Christmas tree as an early Christmas present the other day (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa, and Aunt Karen!). I put it up, sans ornaments, to see how he would handle it. No problem. So I put ornaments on it and watched him closely. Any time he went for the tree, which wasn’t all that often, I would give him a good squirt of water. I thought that would teach him to stay away, and it did for several days. Overnight last night, however, he went nuts. When I got up this morning, there were 10 ornaments knocked off the tree and scattered around the house. At least, I’ve found 10 so far… Who knows if there are more that I haven’t found yet. So I took him over to the tree, held out an ornament, waited for him to play with it and spanked him (not too hard of course). I did that some more, but apparently it didn’t work, because when I got back from my time with the Salvation Army, a couple more were off the tree, and 2 were broken. The fragments were all over the place, of course. Arg! Naturally, he leaves things alone when I’m home, so I can’t train him to stay away. Those of you who are cat owners…have any tips? My friend Kristina mentioned aluminum foil, which I’ve tried before and he ended up shredding it and making a big mess. She also mentioned duct tape, which would probably work, but it would take a lot to put it around the tree, and wouldn’t be very attractive. Any advice? Thanks!
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Dec 14th, 2004 at 23:37:45
haha! i love cats. my advice? get a dog to take care of the car
Any time MegaByte thinks KittyKitty is having fun, it means Meg must make sure kitty is only have fun with her!
On a serious note, I’m at a loss. I know with dogs, they make a spray that tastes and smells bad to dogs so dogs will stay away from a certian area. Maybe they make it for cats?
Dec 15th, 2004 at 00:57:16
poisoned ornaments?
Dec 15th, 2004 at 09:44:11
Um.. well I am trying to remember. Spank Harder.
Part of it is just the youth of the cat. In the future it won’t be as much of a problem.
Leave out some real cat toys in the room with the tree that might distract the cat from the tree.
Dec 15th, 2004 at 14:54:58
the tape goes around the cat!
Dec 15th, 2004 at 14:56:57
He has tons of cat toys all over the place. Catnip mice, a squeeky mouse hanging from the end of a string, his favorite shoe string… He’s a sucker for something new, though. If I wad up a piece of paper to throw away, his ears will perk up and he’ll get that look in his eye that he wants to play with it. He soon loses interest in that, though, so maybe that’ll happen with the tree. Only one ornament was knocked off last night…
Dec 15th, 2004 at 15:11:03
Okay, so Smokey’s supposed to be afraid of the water bottle that I use to squirt him. He’s supposed to run in terror when I point it at him, and stay away from it when it’s laying on the floor in front of the tree. Seems the water bottle is Smokey’s wrestling buddy now. So much for that!
Dec 15th, 2004 at 15:12:42
I would have to agree with Jeff on the age of the cat reason. (I really wouldn’t put duct tape around a cat.) But I don’t know much at all about cats.
Dec 15th, 2004 at 15:54:20
It sounds like you need “a red herring”-not sure how to spell that so here’s my distraction-I think maybe you should get another cat/kitten. Now before you start saying well, that’s no solution-that would be twice as much mess. Let me tell you what happened w/ my cat once I got another. He calmed down a whole lot and wasn’t as mean b/c he had some other felion to play with. My two cats just run around and chase each other-it’s a lot like watching Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote. It also seems as if you are running out of options since spanking and using the water bottle aren’t getting you anywhere you may want to try this-just a suggestion.
Dec 15th, 2004 at 17:11:44
Get a dog!!
Dec 15th, 2004 at 23:04:10
I somewhat agree with the 2nd cat suggestion. KittyKitty’s and my parent’s cat pumpkin’s attitude both changed with the introduction of a new animal. They all seemed to get a little more lovey and calmed down. But, you have an ‘unfixed’ boy cat with a still new world (to him). i say get him fixed and you will see a change.
Dec 16th, 2004 at 10:04:16
We were told that our dog would change once we had him fixed, it didn’t make squat bit of difference in him. (Melissa’s mom has had it for a long time.) (And yes I know dogs are different than cats.) So I personally am not confident in the “fixing” to calm an animal.
Dec 16th, 2004 at 16:07:50
Um… I thought you were gonna leave Smokey in the garage when you weren’t at home anyway? You already got you’re tree? I thought my mom said they’d give it to you at Christmas. Oh well, guess it makes since to give it to you now anyway, so you can enjoy it.
Dec 18th, 2004 at 01:50:28
Get rid of the cat, solves the problem
Dec 19th, 2004 at 03:03:25
Bryan, Smokey has been roaming the house at night and when I’m gone for some time now. I left him in the garage overnight for the first week, so he would get used to things while I was around, but since then, he’s been in the house almost full time. I’m not about to leave him in the house while I’m gone 3 days over Christmas, so he’s going to be in the garage again.