My Flippin´CAT!!

[maveta]

Is driving me up the wall. Both our cats have always been allowed to go/sleep more or less anywhere they want in the house. We had banned them from the bedroom in anticipation of the baby´s arrival but then one in particular looked so depressed and neglected after the baby arrived that we let him back in. So far so good, they slept quietly at the foot of the bed with no problems. BUT when we moved the cotbed into our room (and baby out of the moses basket) they took a shine to it. I´ve found one cat in there twice but he´s not done it since (he´s quite a scaredy cat and normally if I tell him off he doesn´t repeat the action). The other one is a right ballsy little so and so and yesterday I found him in there FOUR TIMES IN A ROW! I don´t want to shut the door to the room as we need the air to flow through the house from the bedroom windows, with the door shut it becomes stuffy and claustrophobic. Each time I chased him out and told him off but he just went straight back in.

Decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and left the door open when we went to bed. Just about to fall asleep and he JUMPED IN THE COT ON TOP OF THE BABY! Oh my god I nearly lost the plot completely. So both cats now sleep in the kitchen.

But it´s not just the cot, we have a carpet down in the baby´s room (can´t shut the door for the same airflow issue) and he scratches his claws on it. Now we have it rolled up in the corner so he can´t do it. He has a scratching post which he uses, they also have their own beds, which they use if ours isn´t on offer. I´ve found him on top of the baby changing unit repeatedly even though he KNOWS he´s not allowed.

How do you teach a cat? The other one isn´t a problem but this one is seriously testing my patience, it´s like having a small naughty child and I feel like all I do all day is tell him NO, NO, NO, NOOOOOOO!!!

[notdoneyet]

when my dd3 was born i have banned the cat from the house, for the same reasons (found him in the moses basket/in the cot, etc), cats are unlike dogs, they dont know better. if my dd1 lets him into the house she has to take him into the living room and close the door so that he cannot get upstairs to any of the bedrooms and the baby cannot be in the same room as him.

I dont think that you can teach a cat.

[arfur]

You could try putting tin foil in the cot (not when the baby is in it ) most cats dont like the noise and feel of foil so if it jumped into the cot and landed on the foil should frighten it away. If it works try putting it any place you dont want your cat to be. You shouldnt have to do it forever the cat should learn quite quickly IME. Also double sided sticky tape is supposed to deter them from scratching sofas etc might be worth a go on the carpet where its scratching. HTH. Good luck. My little darling woke me up last night at 12.40 mewing loudly outside my bedroom window. DH said maybe shes hurt hadnt you better check. So I trundled downstairs and of course she was fine pets - gotta love em!

[maveta]

lol notdoneyet - i live in a flat (the cats go out to a communal garden through the bathroom window and then by climbing over walls etc etc) so if I banned them from the house I´d effectively be abandoning them..

arfur - good suggestions, cheers, had heard the foil one before and forgot..will try it now..

[kiteflying]

Cat net on cot?

As for the rug - abandon that. We only have rugs we are happy can be used as extra scratch posting material by ours.

You cannot teach a cat but you can use aversion techniques. Generally cats like to do things that get attention so if you are yelling no, it is a monty to continue. Try picking up cat and taking it outside/shutting it away from your company for five minutes as soon as you find it in the cot. Must be immediate as cats cannot make connections beyond immediacy.

So saying, my cat ran away from a nasty housemate once twelve years ago and got lost. I searched for hours and when he finally heard me he answered in the most booming mioaw you have ever heard. He was terrified. To this day, when he hears me calling he answers back in the exact same way. And comes back immediately. V handy.