This is Bella.
In many ways, she’s a wonderful cat and a loyal, albeit sometimes aloof, companion. She’s been with me for nearly five years and I love her to bits.
Although mischievous, as most cats are, her behaviour has never caused me much difficulty or frustration.
Until this past week. After years of ignoring my audio equipment, Bella suddenly decided that my amplifier would make for an excellent perch and a comfortable lounging spot.
It’s understandable, I suppose. After all, the amp, left on all the time, gets warm and the temperature is starting to drop a little more each day here in Toronto. It’s also placed on top of a 2×2 Ikea Expedit storage unit that is short enough for her to jump on to.
We first spotted her sitting on it last Wednesday. We chased her off and gave her a squirt with the spray bottle kept on hand for feline discipline, hoping she would learn the lesson. Unfazed, she has now made it her mission to jump up on the amp whenever we’re not home or not in the room.
Trying to curb this new habit has left me exasperated. We’ve squirted her with water, locked her in the bedroom with us when we go to bed, scolded her, withheld love and affection…none of it works. Mostly I just feel guilty for drenching her with water after she looks at me with startled, innocent eyes.
The easiest solution, I think, would be to get a proper audio rack. It would be taller and all of the components (apart from the turntable on top) would be inaccessible to Bella because of the shelves above.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any room for one. Theoretically I could place a rack between my speakers, as many people do. But one of my compromises with the lady of the house when we moved in to this apartment and I set up the listening room was to ensure she could have her rocking chair in the bay window that is behind the half-way point between the speakers. So, until we move to a larger place, I’m stuck with imperfect solutions.
One such solution was cooked up by Sue. We discussed using some sort of barrier(s) to keep Bella from jumping up.
I noted my concern about using anything that could be knocked over and scratch/damage either my turntable, speakers, or the amp itself (the turntable is on the storage unit next to the amp and one speaker is adjacent to the storage unit the amp sits on).
So, Sue took some heavy duty paper she uses for arts and crafts, rolled up a few pieces of varying size, and taped the edges to make them into tubes. We then stacked them in front of and top of the amp, turntable, and storage units.
It’s an inelegant solution but an effective one. First, it has kept Bella off the amp. Second, it’s easy to gather up the paper cylinders and put them aside when I actually want to listen to records. Third, they are so light that I have no cause for concern with them stationed on or near any of my equipment. Even if Bella were to try to jump up and knock one down, the paper would do no harm to anything.
A small victory in the constant struggle with feline mischief.
You’re lucky she leaves your speaker cables alone. Our dearly departed Miles used to love chewing on my 47 Labs cables and my DNM cables. I tried lots of solutions over the years, but what worked in the end was Tabasco sauce.
“Tabasco”. Interesting solution. I had purchased an odorous product/gel called “Bitter Apple” to try and break my smallest of the bad habit of chewing every wire she can fit in her mouth. It didn’t work. Eventually, the stuff became “seasoning” (I foolishly tried tasting the stuff myself to ensure it wouldn’t harm my cats. No “apple” in it. More like horse urine. Gack!)
In the end, I’ve purchased miles of plastic tubing at Auto Zone used to cover the wires under the hood of your car. Works great, but she has an uncanny ability to finds that one stray uncovered wire.
Tobasco! Perfect. I have been making a cayanne/olive oil paste to coat my cords – I think not as cost effective as the tobasco. And then there is the top of the heater. Paper tubes won’t do. Beast just swats the soda cans, with a coupla pennies in each one, out of the way.
I cover all my cords with cord covers I get at Home Depot. It takes a while to cover; but it is much less of a hassle than tabasco or bitter apple. I originally thought the chewing was something they would outgrow; but 10 years later, I still cover the cords of any new electric equipment. One time I left a lamp overnight before I covered it. While covering the cord the next day, I found little cat teeth marks in the cord. Additionally, one of my two sweeties chews absolutely any thing except cloth. I mail cards to friends and even they recognize the marks of my cat wishing them greetings of some sort. Obviously, I am owned by my cats not the other way around. Sigh.
I have bought everything reccommended, and then some, including the cord covers. I could not get them on. How on earth do you get them on?
Yes, I can count myself fortunate for that. She has thus far had no interest in the speaker cable or the speakers (touch wood).
I was doing my daily search of the interweb and stumbled across your post. After reading it, I must say I felt compelled to leave this response.
Quite simply, you must let your beloved cat sit where she wants to sit! You need to cease and desist this unreasonable interference with her rights (animals have rights too you know).
How could it possibly harm your expensive stereo for her to simply sit and sleep peacefully on it? I don’t see the problem. She’s not doing chewing on your cables. She’s not doing anything destructive. She just needs a place to sleep. And, what, so you squirt her with water bottles? For shame.
To that end, I am extremely concerned and disappointed to see that she is being deprived of a heat source to protect her from what sounds like a horribly cold apartment in…. where, Canada! The coldest nation in North America! I thought you loved her? I knew hearts were cold in Toronto, but am shocked to see this.
Look at how adorable she is in that picture… yet you can clearly see the pain and yearning written all over her face. How can you look at her in the eyes and deny her this? Though I admit that her expression may be at least partially due to what is going on behind her.
I look forward to an update saying that you have agreed to change your discriminatory ways and removed the offensive tubes.
Govern yourself accordingly, and Go Bella Go!
Yuri Nater
President
People United in Solidarity for the Support of Independent Felines Interested in Elevated Dozing
Awesome
Hmm, pretty soon bella might fancy your speakers as scratching post to sharpen her claws. How about buying a cheap amp for your cat to cuddle up to and stay warm
I got one of these electric heated cat beds for my cat. It allows me to keep the thermostat way down while I’m out, and the cat is nice and toasty in his basket. It consumes 4 watts. The cat loves it. Bella might find it more attractive than the amp…
http://www.petco.com/product/108010/KAndH-Thermo-Kitty-Bed-in-Mocha.aspx
This seems a great idea. The only trouble we’ve had with cat beds, cat climbing towers, toys, is that Bella is utterly disinterested in them. Every thing we’ve ever brought home has been ignored.
Instead, she loves plastic bags, luggage, furniture, clothes, and now stereo equipment.
An easy cat repellent: citrus. It’s gloing to be clementine season; peel the fruit, eat them, and leave the fresh peels wherever youdon’t want Bella to go. I have cousins who had many plants; their new cat decided that the pots made fine litterboxes. Fortunately, this was in winter, and we started putting all of our citrus peelings in the flowerpots. Problem solved. After his
“habit” was broken, the cat never visited the flowerpots again.
Don’t forget string, cardboard boxes and fallen cloth grocery bags open just enough for her to crawl inside!
Place double-sided tape on the spot where she sits. That may solve your problem.
We solved Izzy’s kitchen counter explorations by taping a square of cabinet liner sticky-side up on the counter. She can’t see the counter before she jumps up, but when she’d get there she wouldn’t enjoy the tacky stickiness of the paper on her feet. Needless to say, she didn’t stay long enough to sit or even think about laying down on it.
A couple days of finding the counter tops sticky and she hasn’t been up there again.
Yep – grocery bags –
Both my cats, Beast and Tonka, love grocery bags. When one of them crawls all the way inside a bag, they seem to like it when I take the bag and “parade” them around the apartment with their head just peaking out.