Comments on: What A Relief

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 05:08:18 +0000

It was the incessant clacking all night that spelled the true end of the verticals. They weren’t installed properly and the end slats could be pinned and scratched.

There is no way of explaining the difference between the scratching surface and cardboard in general. Once they get the approval to scratch one type of cardboard, the right is automatically applied to all types of cardboard.

Dot and Sox have voices, but the rest are generally mute. That makes it easy to tell who is causing trouble in the next room.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 04:37:36 +0000

Everything is a cat toy.

isn’t that the truth! it’s why the cats here are shut off in their own part of the house and the dog and i have the rest of the house.

ok, the other reason they’re all relegated to the florida room is that they all have all their claws and destroy everything. cardboard, whether as the commercially-produced scratching pads or just plain boxes from the liquor store is a huge favorite, possibly also for the noise factor.

the vertical blinds were too attractive as noisemakers and not so much as scratching posts i guess, because they escaped damage. and yes, you’re right about white being a concept and not a color there. 🙂

most of mine have very tiny voices and nearly inaudible purrs, so maybe they feel the need to make up for that.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 16:58:14 +0000

A heavy duty magnetic latch can solve that problem. If the doors are painted, a hook and eye latch will do the job cheaper, with a minimum repair required if you leave.

I had to secure things before the boys were ‘tutored’, as they were always looking to ‘claim new territory’.

Everything is a cat toy.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 05:01:28 +0000

Our cat Esther has discovered how to open old-style folding doors of the sort regrettably used on wide closets in Our House. She’s getting pretty good at it. She can also often open lower kitchen cabinets, though there’s not a lot in them that she can damage. The closets are a different matter…

The only scratching surfaces that I regret the kitties’ use of are the legs and sometimes backs of Stella’s dining room chairs, which are fabric-upholstered. Oh well… her chairs, her cats, not my problem.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 04:19:02 +0000

In reply to Badtux.

Every cat has their preferred scratching surface, and Excise actually uses a carpeted traffic cone thing that was sold a scratching post, except he knocks on its side to use it.

His mother prefers oak trees, which is why she likes the outside.

Sox has the back corner of a bureau, while Dot makes do with the carpet.

The only thing that they all seemed to agree on was the vertical blind slats, and they can wear them down.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 03:44:31 +0000

My guys have claws and use them too. But they use the futon, corner of the bed, my computer chair, throw rugs, and other such things to exercise their claws. Oh yeah, and occasionally the cardboard cat scratcher thingy (the only cat scratcher thingy they’ll actually use at all). The slats on the vertical blinds appear to be too slick for them to consider using for claw purposes.

Regarding slat color, two words, Bryan: Krylon Fusion ;).

— Badtux the Cat-owned Penguin
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By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 02:01:05 +0000

Have you ever tried to find the replacement slats for vertical blinds? Apparently ‘white’ is a ‘concept’ and not an actual color, and while the hanging length is supposed to 64-inches, well, you can’t expect people to use the same standard for an inch. That is, of course, if you find slats that attached the same way.

My cats have claws and use them.

Most people down here site Florida rooms on the North side of the house, and under shade trees. They were originally just screened back porches.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 17:57:53 +0000

florida room – you’re right about the potential sauna effect, but this one stayed cooler than i would have expected, thanks mostly to the HUGE oak trees shading it from various angles throughout the day. of course, the huge oak trees are going to crush it into a pile of firewood if they ever come down in a hurricane. 🙂

in my previous abode, my cats thought of the vertical blinds as cat toys, and the miniblinds as, i dunno, stairways to heaven maybe. miniblinds are way cheaper than vertical in unit price, but you have to factor in the volume of destruction of each kind too.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:06:44 +0000

My guys pretty much ignore verticals except to move them out of the way to look out the windows. They destroy miniblinds rapidly by doing the same thing (miniblinds appear less durable when a cat pokes his paw into them and pushes them down to make room to poke his head through so he can watch the cat TV outside).

Florida Room — what I can’t figure out is why anybody ever thought that it’d be a great idea to have a room of full-height windows receiving direct sunlight… in Florida. Great recipe for a sauna. Just make sure it has a stone floor that you can pour water onto when you want steam for your sauna :twisted:.

Weather here has been beautiful. It did heat up a bit yesterday, to the mid 80’s, but cooled down nicely in the evening. I even gave my Jeep a bath. Actually it needs a lot more than a bath… its paint is starting to show the wear and tear of pushing through too much dense underbrush. But that’s another story.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 03:33:04 +0000

That’s why I use mini-blinds. They treated the verticals like scratching posts and were constantly batting them to make them move. I replaced the mini-blinds frequently, but they are cheap.