How to cat-proof my rig (and my apartment)?

[Luis Hernandez 569]

For the simmers among us that own cats (or are rather owned by them😝), how do you manage not to have surprises from them, in both your sim rig and your apartment/house?

Reason: after taking care of a friend's kitten (and some personal issues I'm still striving to get over), now I've got a very soft spot for them. And no, the cat never came to my apartment: I went to his just to make sure he had enough water and food, and playing a bit with him....

[charliearon 3,017]

Cats love warmth!  Heater vents, tops of steam radiators, laying on top of older tube type TV sets.  Also tops of computer cases covering the heat vents.  Cats also love barfing into those devices....YUK!  Also watch out for exposed electric cords!

Scratching posts are a must.  Gotta sharpen those claws on something! 🐱

[fppilot 4,355]

Don't get or keep a cat? (someone had to ask the obvious)

Edited January 13, 2022 by fppilot

[charliearon 3,017]

2 minutes ago, fppilot said:

Don't get or keep a cat? (someone had to ask the obvious)

Oh, oh!  No cat points for Frank! -🐱

[martin-w 3,234]

2 hours ago, Luis Hernandez said:

how do you manage not to have surprises from them, in both your sim rig and your apartment/house?

 

What do you mean by surprises? Do you mean when they bring into the house small rodents that have willingly scarified themselves to our beloved deities called felines?

[martin-w 3,234]

2 hours ago, charliearon said:

Cats love warmth!  Heater vents, tops of steam radiators, laying on top of older tube type TV sets.  Also tops of computer cases covering the heat vents.  Cats also love barfing into those devices....YUK!  Also watch out for exposed electric cords!

Scratching posts are a must.  Gotta sharpen those claws on something! 🐱

 

My cat doesn't bother with warm stuff, he's hard like all English people. Doesn't seek out such locations. Finds all manner of sleeping places around the cottage. Like most cats his instincts tell him to move around so that any rival predators don't find him. In fact I don't recall any of my 9 cats have sought out hot spots. Apart from sunshine in the garden of course or through window. Sunbathing they like, but they manage very well in low temps. My previous cat used to voluntarily nip through the cat flap at bedtime to check his territory and do cat things when the temperature was well below freezing. Didn't bother him in the least. In fact they have been known to survive in the arctic living off dead penguins. 

As for "barfing" oh yes, they do like to cough up those sausage shaped fur balls from time to time. And then of course there was the time my cat, as a kitten, decided to eat some string. Following morning I found a splodge of sick full of string in my toaster. He had decided to jettison the said string from on top of a kitchen cupboard. Perfect shot straight into toaster slot number one. He doesn't puke up fur balls that much to be fair, and high fibre cat biscuits seem to be very effective.

When my cat was a kitten he went through a week or two of gently chewing electric flex, but doesn't do anything like that as an adult. In fact he's the only kitten out of 9 that has fancied an electrifying chew toy. 

Edited January 13, 2022 by martin-w

[richjb2 195]

2 hours ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

Cats are all about energy conservation, like Charlie says, they LOVE warmth ... their normal body temps are around 100-102 F.

Yes, they shred furniture like swiss cheese.  Don't de-claw your cat, that's like cutting their hands off ... just get lots of scratching posts and "trim" their claws if they let you.  Play with your cat carefully, keep your face AWAY from them if you see any sort of eye dilation.  They do "love bites", sometimes they can draw blood along with razor sharp claws ... they have moods.  Each cat has their own character ... some love to play, some don't, some are lap, face, body lovers, some aren't, some like being picked up some don't.

Brush your cats regularly if you want to minimize barfing up hairballs.

We had one cat with IBS (sadly passed away last year at 14 years old) ... oh the mess and cleanup ... we have a pet carpet cleaning machine, works wonders.

Indoor cats live much longer on average 10-15 years, outdoor cats 2-5 years.

Suggest using large litter boxes with high sidewall and lower front lip.

Try to stick with good quality dry food, wet food can lead to tooth problems later in life.  Don't change the food once they accept it and all seems good, (no diarrhea or barfing up food).

Cats are good mental health distractions.

Cheers, Rob.

Great suggestions, Rob.   I'll add a few of my own.

1. Keep the cords out of the way of cat, particularly kittens as they love to chew on things.  Be careful of certain plants.  NO CHOCOLATES!!

2. Cats throw up.  That's part of grooming and their natural response to things they should not have eaten.  Carpet cleaning tips:

    a.  Use any carpet cleaner to clean up the mess and the clean the stain.  We use Resolve here in the US

    b.  When finished washing up the vomit/hairball and washing the carpet with the clearner, take a damp wash cloth (folded in half long ways) and place it flat over the stained area.  Place something heavy on top of washcloth, for example a phone book (if you have one still?) or we use a couple of small bricks.  Then let the washcloth dry for a few days with the weight (i.e., book, brick, etc.) on top of it.  As the washcloth dries with weight on it, it will "wick" up and draw out the tannins from the vomit/hairball that actually stain the carpet.  When the washcloth is dry, pick everything up and vacuum.  You won't be able to see the stained area.  Our carpet cleaner gave us that trick. 

3. Catnip is your friend.  If kitty is raucous or stressed, a little catnip can calm them down. Catnip also helps direct them to scratching posts and scratching blankets, which saves furniture. 

4. Change water twice a day. Cats like fresh water.  Jury's out on the fountains, but I do find it helps. 

5. Pay attention to your cat's habits.  Eating habit changes, weight changes, even things like difficulty swallowing can all be indications of something serious.  Cats are very...very good a hiding serious medical issues.  We lost one cat, our youngest (10 years) this past summer to a very aggressive throat tumor.  Only thing we saw was some difficulty swallowing, which we didn't pick up on fast enough.  We track weights monthly on our older cats.  Any downward trend warrants a trip to the vet. We lost a second one this fall to Lymphoma (he was 17, so he lived a good life).   

6. Laser pointers are a lot of fun for both you and the cat, and a good way to wear a cat out so they can sleep.  

If I can think of anything more, I'll post it. 

Rich Boll

 

 

Edited January 13, 2022 by richjb2

[martin-w 3,234]

2 hours ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

Play with your cat carefully, keep your face AWAY from them if you see any sort of eye dilation.  They do "love bites", sometimes they can draw blood along with razor sharp claws ... they have moods.  Each cat has their own character ... some love to play, some don't, some are lap, face, body lovers, some aren't, some like being picked up some don't.

 

You wimpy man Rob. Let your cat savage your arm. That's how we rock hard brits do it. 😁 My cat is like a cream cake, naughty but nice. Extremely affectionate and loving but also naughty from time to time. When his adrenaline tanks are full and he fancies a fight its very entertaining. Most of the time though he will expect me to play hide and seek. He peeps round the corner at me and I chase him. Then I run and hide and he tries to find me. So intelligent he is, he plays games where its move and counter move. As an OCD sufferer I'm fussy about the neatness of my cables behind my PC. Of course he knows that and attacks my cables. Its then move and counter move as we try to outwit each other.

 

2 hours ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

Indoor cats live much longer on average 10-15 years, outdoor cats 2-5 years.

 

Must be all those mountain lions and snakes by you then Rob. All my cats have been outdoor cats and have lived on average 15 years. Apart from one that vanished and one that got ran over. As long as you haven't got crazy wildlife or busy roads they usually live a full lifespan. 

 

2 hours ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

Cats are good mental health distractions.

 

👍

[martin-w 3,234]

2 hours ago, charliearon said:

Oh, oh!  No cat points for Frank! -🐱

 

He'll be sorry when the feline master race finally decides we humans aren't doing a good enough job of looking after THEIR planet and decide to take over. He'll be kept indoors, made to poo in a litter box, have his private bits chopped off, made to have injections and a thermometer up his bum at the vets and be fed sub standard cat food.  

[n4gix 4,947]

 I wonder if this cat roost affects the StarLink reception adversely...

[pete_auau 1,154]

Speaking of cats, my cat has me  trained  well  in telling me  what  she  wants 🙂

[Ron Attwood 3,464]

You people! Cats are wild animals. They have learned that humans are fool enough to cater to their every whim. Which beats hunting for their food. Hunting now counts as a sport

GET A DOG.

[charliearon 3,017]

6 minutes ago, Ron Attwood said:

 

GET A DOG.

Hey, Ron!  Cats is easy dogs gotta be walked 2-3 times a day!  That's exercise!  I thought the doctor told me extra fries! 🍟🍟

[Mace 1,902]

5 hours ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

.. we have a pet carpet cleaning machine, works wonders.

Can you recommend one?

[Ron Attwood 3,464]

21 minutes ago, charliearon said:

Hey, Ron!  Cats is easy dogs gotta be walked 2-3 times a day!  That's exercise!  I thought the doctor told me extra fries! 🍟🍟

Cats are tyrants. They stop you from getting heathy exercise. You then get fat and lazy, not going out and consequently giving more time to pandering to their evil ways.