Monday, October 22, 2007

Packing Tape Monster

Okay, for those of you with sensitive dispositions, you might not want to continue or else you will think I am a cruel person.

I have a rule in our house....no pets on the furniture. The pets know this (the fish are particularly good about following this rule). Chase used to be really good about this but since someone spoiled her (no names, but it was not J or me) and let her sleep on the bed at Gma's, I have been trying to rebreak her of this.

So our guestbed, which is in the room that she sleeps in, has been a target of her late night lounging. I have caught her up on it physically more than once and I have come in to find her hair all over it a couple of times too. So I had to put an ugly blue tarp over it to keep it clean and in hopes that the cold crinkles would keep her off. Well it didn't...she was still getting up there.

So a couple of nights ago, I put the packing tape back on there (the trick I had to use years ago to break both cats of countertop walks when I wasn't home). I lay the tape out sticky side up. Cat jumps up, get stuck and freaks out and doesn't get up there again. My friend uses tinfoil to keep her dogs off her bed because it scares them, but the tape works exceptionally well on cats.

So anyhow, it had been a few nights, and no kitty caught in the trap, and then last night, right after turning off the reading lamp to go to sleep, I hear a ruckus in the guestroom. I get up and she is on the floor, looking guilty and irritated, with a huge clump of tape stuck to her tail.....I spanked her butt, and left the room with the tape on there for the night. I got up this morning and it was still stuck there. I took it off. But it was funny to see the tape there in the morning...I figured she would spend the night trying to get it off there.

I know you all must think I am cruel but the tape doesn' t hurt anything but her pride and it does work as a deterent...since Chase doesn't seem to catch on as quick as some other animals, I might have to leave new tape up there for another week or so but she'll figure it out eventually.

8 comments:

Girl said...

I don't think that's cruel at all. I was a big fan of the squirt bottle when I was in a house with a cat.

I can just picture that guilty kitty face. :)

... said...

Yeah, I would use the squirt bottle but in this case, it would require me to squirt right over my computer so I thought the tape worked better....plus then it works even when I am not there...haha.

Mind Sprite said...

It takes a great deal of fortitude to attempt training a cat. Good luck to you!

Haha said...

I do not remember letting Chase sleep with me, but I cannot be held accountable for the 1st few nights I was there as I was under the influence of cold medicine. I am going to try your method though as the squirt bottle works well for breaking up fights, I know they sneak on the counter when I am not at home. I could just lock them on the front porch when I am gone - they do have fur coats!

Violet said...

That sounds like a good method... I've heard of the foil thing before, but never the tape. Good to know.

Haha said...

i been thinking about this and I think Ms Chase needs one of those very portable, flannel, cozy, warm round beds. The can go from room to room and she will know it is all hers. Well also help keep the cat hair confined in one place for easy vacumning. You think we could write a letter to Santa on her behalf? Has she been a good girl this year? I happen to know where Santa keeps them too!

... said...

Haha, I don't think it is from sleeping with anyone...it is from her being on the bed when someone would come in and not getting her in trouble.

She has a round walled fleece lined bed that she loves to sleep in in the winter...so no worries there. Between that little tent and the bed, she is stoked.

Terry said...

Dear Mishka..What a good idea!
Bernie spoils the cat though because that fur ball sleeps right in our bed at night.
Gives me all kinds of dirty looks too, like I shouldn't be there...

My big black cat, Sir Galahad was my pride and joy and even though I loved him, I would never let him get up on the kitchen table...
That is absolutely no place a cat should be.
He would never dare when I was around.
One day though our next door neighbour came in to talk to us.
He was a big man but he was crying and we were trying to cheer him up.
Well as he was sitting at the table with his head down and crying, didn't that cat of mine jump up on the table and start to pat that guy on his head and didn't that nasty person[me] not even stop him!
And people say that animals don't have a care for hurting people!....Terry