jumping cats = total bastards

[PeaceBaby]

He's pretty good with bedtime stuff, as long as he can get into one of the two bedrooms. It's only if he's trapped with nowhere to go that he cries for attention. Typically he comes into my room and starts purring loudly as soon as he gets on my bed... I do often have to take him off my face 2-3x before he settles (he typically does that kneeding thing with his paws, sometimes on my shoulder) but he gets over it quickly.

You can train him too to sleep at the end of your bed. We bought one of those "princess pillows" and continually removed the cat from faces to foot spaces and after a while, that's where she would always sleep. She preferred our daughter's bed to ours, probably one of the factors was that her feet didn't reach to the end of the bed!

He's also managed to open doors. The little bastard. I've watched him freak out when he wanted out of my bedroom -- he jumped up, grabbed the doorknob, and swung back and forth until he got it open, then ran out of the room. I was like "WTH?????" He's only done it once, but he simultaneously pisses me off as well as amazes me with his intelligence and craftiness.

lol I just read this. Our son swears that our cat opened his bedroom door once, and we just laugh and laugh about that one! Clever kitty!

I got him at ten weeks old, he was never an indoor cat for anyone else, and he's now at least 20-24 weeks old, and he's just a little bastard.

So your l'il bastard sweet darling is still very young ... he will learn. Cats are less tractable than dogs for sure though; that long-term consistency was helpful for us.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

I guess the water doesn’t work for as many cats as I would have thought. It worked with all three of mine, for everything, even scratching the ends of the sofas. I mean if they so much as saw me reaching for the water bottle, they’d bolt (so it even worked in spite of any association they’d made between people and the water). I guess I’m just lucky though.

The tape idea sounds good. That sounds like something they’d hate too. It really would have to be hidden though- I can imagine my cats would probably find the highest vantage point on other furniture to check for the placemats on the counter (by sight) before giving up on jumping. (Plus, like Jennifer mentioned, I’d be too lazy to implement this system consistently.) It’s probably a matter of trying all of it and seeing which works best for each cat.

I don’t know if other people have any luck with noises being a deterrent (Jennifer mentioned yelling in bossy boss-lady voice), but something that worked with a friend’s dog is putting a bunch of metal nuts and bolts into a can and shaking it. Personally, my cats are impervious to noises. They make it clear when unpleasant noises disturb their sleep, but sirens/alarms/yelling noises do f**-all as a deterrent for bad behavior. The water bottle really did work best for me.

[edit:] There's a good chance- because they clearly made an association between us and the water bottle- they did certain behaviors while we weren't around at first. But I think ultimately it's too much work to remember what they can & can't get away with when no one is looking because they stopped scratching furniture while no one was home. Things that are 'off limits' sometimes become unappealing because it's too much work to remember the conditions which avoid consequences.

Also: @ vala faye's comment, I don't know how much being an indoor cat has to do with water aversion. All my cats, even the ones my family had while growing up, were all exclusively indoor cats- most of which had never spent more than an hour outside in their entire life-but all of them had a serious aversion to water. I can't remember the reason most speculated just now, but cats are just born with it.

 

[Totenkindly]

I don’t know if other people have any luck with noises being a deterrent (Jennifer mentioned yelling in bossy boss-lady voice),

I don't even need to yell, I just get that stern/cross ("HEY") voice, and he's gone.
It's rather funny, because when I talk normally, he's all over me.

I guess it is to be expected, but it's rather amazing how much variance in personality and responsiveness the cats (and other pets) have.

Today I stepped on him on the steps (when my foot lifted, he wasn't there; and when it came down, he was), and he didn't like that much. I hope that taught him to stop walking under my feet all the time when I'm trying to get somewhere, but I am not holding out much hope...

 

[Totenkindly]

You can train him too to sleep at the end of your bed. We bought one of those "princess pillows" and continually removed the cat from faces to foot spaces and after a while, that's where she would always sleep. She preferred our daughter's bed to ours, probably one of the factors was that her feet didn't reach to the end of the bed!

Lol... I actually am okay with him sleeping near my head, and nowadays he usually settles within a minute or two. When I first got him, he ended up in the hallway a few nights the first week because he persisted in doing things like (1) playing with my hair, (2) walking all over my face, (3) chasing his tail frantically right on my stomach, (4) pouncing on me due to the movement of the comforter when I shifted position, and I just couldn't sleep, and he wouldn't stop. But now I just gently put him back on his blanket, and after biting my fingers a few times, he'll go to sleep.

lol I just read this. Our son swears that our cat opened his bedroom door once, and we just laugh and laugh about that one! Clever kitty!

Wait until he opens the fridge and starts cooking all your fish!

So your l'il bastard sweet darling is still very young ... he will learn. Cats are less tractable than dogs for sure though; that long-term consistency was helpful for us.

Yes, dogs typically seem to want to please; cats indulge you when it amuses them, and otherwise do what they want.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

I hope that taught him to stop walking under my feet all the time when I'm trying to get somewhere, but I am not holding out much hope...

This may be the single only thing I have never been able to get them to stop doing- walking under my feet, it drives me bonkers. Well, that and hairballs. They have control over walking under my feet though.

 

[Totenkindly]

This may be the single only thing I have never been able to get them to stop doing- walking under my feet, it drives me bonkers. Well, that and hairballs. They have control over walking under my feet though.

He does it on the steps, which is worse.. I can see him as I approach the steps from upstairs... I see him peeking up over the edge, with his little tail flicking. He acts like I can't see him if he crouches enough. So I'm always trying to dodge this unpredictable moving cat as I go downstairs.

Last night I accidentally kicked him down the steps as he threw himself in front of my feet when i was descending.

I don't know how the cat ladies do it. Can you imagine 25 of these little tabbies and tigers, all squirming and circling and climbing over each other if they think you have food?

 

[MacGuffin]

*reads all the stories in the thread*

Yup, cats are assholes.

 

[jimrckhnd]

the cats are assholes... no matter how often I remove them from countertops, kitchen islands or dresser tops where they should NOT be, they keep jumping right back up there... this evening one of the little bastards jumped up onto some cupcakes I had sitting on the counter, which pissed me off and distracted me from the cabbage I was trying to cut in half, causing me to slice my thumb

the horrible little creature was right back up there in a minute... this time licking up the blood that I'd dripped across the counter

a. are cats vampires?

b. is there any way to keep them from jumping places where they shouldn't short of tying their tails to cannonballs or cutting off their feet?

on

A little late on this one but you can buy these things I call "cat mines" - they are mouse traps that have a plastic paddle attached to the bail. You set them and place them on places where you don't want the cat to jump and when they set them off the paddle gives them a nice but safe "thwack" and whole thing jumps around like crazy scaring the crap out of them.

If nothing else its good for a laugh.

 

[jimrckhnd]

"Last night I accidentally kicked him down the steps as he threw himself in front of my feet when i was descending."

I boosted my buddies cat in low earth orbit a couple of weeks ago. We both came in late from a bar and we decided to have a night cap at his place. Well the cat is all excited to see us (very social) and while we're blundering around in the dark trying to locate the fridge and a couple of beers I managed to boot the cat into the next room.

He just got in front of my feet as I made a beeline for the gents and I caught him like I was making a field goal. I felt kinda bad for him but he seemed fine.

 

[Totenkindly]

"Last night I accidentally kicked him down the steps as he threw himself in front of my feet when i was descending."

I boosted my buddies cat in low earth orbit a couple of weeks ago. We both came in late from a bar and we decided to have a night cap at his place. Well the cat is all excited to see us (very social) and while we're blundering around in the dark trying to locate the fridge and a couple of beers I managed to boot the cat into the next room.

He just got in front of my feet as I made a beeline for the gents and I caught him like I was making a field goal. I felt kinda bad for him but he seemed fine.

lol... i know, it's amazing how resilient they are. Those long contortionist bodies... They can really fly if you catch them right, though.

 

[Tiltyred]

I act really shocked when they do something I don't want, like I'm horrified. *GASP! Oh, bad cat, really bad!" not loud, but shocked, shocked enough that they're caught by surprise by it. The cat I have now, I just make a sound, kind of like Ott! and she stops what she's doing and looks embarrassed. It's harder to train them when you have more than one, though. They team up on you.

p.s. I have an old trunk for the cat to sit on so she can watch me while I'm in the kitchen. She can see what's on the counter. Maybe that would help? (probably not...)

 

[kelric]

Cats HATE water.

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I think that ValaFaye or jimrckhnd's ideas are probably the most likely to work, if also the most annoying to maintain. You don't want the cat associating the punishment with being on the counter *and* you noticing and doing something. You want the punishment to happen whether you're there or not. The cat's not going to notice that *you* set up the sticky-tape or cat-mines. The cat will see you with the water bottle, and you're likely to get the "behaves only when it has to" thing going on. Cats are clever and mischievous.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

^I just assumed we were talking about a domestic housecat, and not a tiger. But then, this is Whatever, maybe I shouldn’t have written off that possibility.

All I know is the water bottle trick worked really well for me with my cats. It isn’t even really that they hate water so much as they don’t like getting sprayed. One of my cats would actually come in the bathroom and sit on the edge of the tub while I was taking a bath, yet the spray bottle still worked with her. She loved the sound of running water, but she hated having it splashed on her.

And I mean yeah, like I said, they almost certainly associated me with the water bottle, they’d bolt just from seeing me reach for it- it still worked. Regardless of where the negative consequences come from, if they consistently happen concurrently with the action an association will build and they’ll instinctively avoid it. As long as there are other things for them to turn to- places that are just as appealing, but without the unwanted consequences- eventually they give up and stick to those other things. It is important not to overdo it, though. If they get sprayed too often for too many things, a bigger association will build between the person and getting sprayed than between the unwanted action and getting sprayed- and they’ll just start avoiding people instead. If it isn’t limited to just a couple of specific actions, the spraying seems arbitrary.

 

[Amargith]

Also: @ vala faye's comment, I don't know how much being an indoor cat has to do with water aversion. All my cats, even the ones my family had while growing up, were all exclusively indoor cats- most of which had never spent more than an hour outside in their entire life-but all of them had a serious aversion to water. I can't remember the reason most speculated just now, but cats are just born with it.

Cats do not like water as they don't have a coat that repels water, like dogs do. They actually risk freezing to death if they get submerged and cannot find shelter. The reason that outdoor cats are more likely to be aware of this danger is sheer experience. If indoor cats grow up inside, the chances of them ever getting drenched are relatively minor. And if mommy wasn't around long enough to actually teach them aversion from water, which often is the case with kittens, chances are they have no clue that it's dangerous. Even if they get wet (or even bathed), they're in a warm environment with our central heating in most houses, making the lesson less..clear (though small kittens can still suffer from hypothermia if they aren't properly washed and kept warm, even indoors). Since these cats are around 6 months, chances are that IF they are indoor cats and haven't experienced what 'cold' from being drenched is like, they're unlikely to find the water bottle anything but curious. Sure, they can decide it's annoying to get sprayed, but there's
just as many kittens who would get curious and find it intriguing..all depending on their character

I in fact have several cats that until recently didn't mind water. Now that they go outside and have experienced cold and rain..I should test if they've learned the lesson

 

[Totenkindly]

All I know is the water bottle trick worked really well for me with my cats. It isn’t even really that they hate water so much as they don’t like getting sprayed. One of my cats would actually come in the bathroom and sit on the edge of the tub while I was taking a bath, yet the spray bottle still worked with her. She loved the sound of running water, but she hated having it splashed on her.

Yes, my cat is obsessed with the bathroom too, so much that we've shut the door much of the time. He would either play in the toilet, or he actually still climbs into the bathtub (empty) and walks all around, and examines the leaky spigot. When I've taken a bath, he'll even come up and walk on the edge of the tub to look at the soap bubbles. he's fascinated by that stuff, but he doesn't like getting wet from someone else.

And I mean yeah, like I said, they almost certainly associated me with the water bottle, they’d bolt just from seeing me reach for it- it still worked. Regardless of where the negative consequences come from, if they consistently happen concurrently with the action an association will build and they’ll instinctively avoid it. As long as there are other things for them to turn to- places that are just as appealing, but without the unwanted consequences- eventually they give up and stick to those other things. It is important not to overdo it, though. If they get sprayed too often for too many things, a bigger association will build between the person and getting sprayed than between the unwanted action and getting sprayed- and they’ll just start avoiding people instead. If it isn’t limited to just a couple of specific actions, the spraying seems arbitrary.

I'm aware of that, but it's still kind of fun on occasion to have him playing on the other side of the room and then use the spray bottle to arc water on his head... so that no matter where he goes, he's still getting wet and can't figure out where it's coming from. He just has this look of, "Wth is going on????" His reactions are priceless.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

Ha^. I love cats. I seem to remember my ENP ex doing the same thing to my youngest cat. It turned out we didn’t even need to discipline her, she just never jumped on the counters to begin with so the consistency factor was a moot point with her. And anything that can evoke those instant “you again!”- as if it’s a returning arch-nemesis- or wtf? expressions really are priceless and sorta addictive.

[MENTION=5494]Vala Faye[/MENTION]: that is interesting. I’m having a hard time believing cats aren’t just born with an aversion to getting sprayed (that they hate getting hit with water when it isn’t on their own terms), regardless (J < - me, lol?), if only because it worked so well for me and because it’s so often one of the top suggestions on how to discipline them. Part of me wants to suggest that most people aren’t consistent enough with only sticking to one or two specific spots to discipline them. I’ll admit though that I only have experience with two cats (as an adult, that I needed to train myself) because my third cat didn’t need it, and the first two actually were born feral (found them in forest preserve as kittens). I’ll probably need to have this conversation with a few different people before it sinks in. I’m too ‘J’ for myself even sometimes.

 

[Amargith]

I thought that cats were born with that aversion too, till I handreared some kittens myself. And truth be told, I was never able to punish them with the spray bottle, especially as they had longhaired coats and didn't even feel the water. On top of that, as they get so dirty before they learn to clean themselves, you almost have to wash parts of them to keep it managable. But that's with hot water and instant dry towels and hot beds afterwards. Water still doesn't scare the one kitten I kept. Sure, she'll go like..'what's that, stop that!', but she remains unimpressed. Even now that she goes out in the rain, she has that same attitude. It just mildly irritates her (and then comes and uses me as a towel when she comes back inside ). She lies in my bathtub when it's hot, and plays with any beam of water she can find. She doesn't evne *feel* the water, as she needs serious soaking before her fur gets wet enough to transmit the cold to the skin. Once it does however..she is at serious risk of hypothermia.

For that matter, sphinxes (naked cats) tend to love being bathed if they were raised the right way, as they need it to keep their skin in tip top shape and are therefore handled from a very early age to teach them to tolerate water. I also remember that we had a cat that we hand reared when I was 10, which was only 4 days old. She got 'cleaned off' under the faucet when she did a number 1 or 2 (normally, mommy licks it up..my mom didn't really fancy doing that ). She, as an adult, was never impressed by water, nor frightened by it.

I do think this is a nurture issue, at least, thats what my experience and training tells me.

 

[Tiltyred]

I don't think it's the water. I think it's the surprise. Loud sudden noises work just as well. Anything that is a shock.

 

[Amargith]

^ Loud noises work as well, indeed. And yes, the startling aspect definitely helps, but it's also coz their main sense, their highest developed sense is hearing. Loud noises = ouch...

The problem with noises is, how do you administer them? I also use clapping and yelling their name, but when I leave the room, I *know* they'll do those things anyways as they associate it with me. Remove me from the equation and they know they're free to do what they want. If you can do a 'deus ex machina'.. that's the most ideal to teach them not to do something, permanently.

 

[M_Kirch]

They're not bastards, they probably just want to be with you aside from their preference of high places. I trained my cats not to jump on tables and counters by putting them down and leading them to their food bowl on the floor. Don't give them food if they're on the counter/tables, so they will understand they get no reward from jumping up there and that the goodies are downon the floor.
As to your blood, well, cats are naturally curious and they probably thought it was just another strange liquid spilled on the table.
As to your cupcake, dude, my condolences. I'm pretty picky on my sweets too.