Talk to me about owning cats

[wintersdawn]

I'll be honest I've grown up with dogs and as an adult have only owned dogs but our lives don't suit dogs anymore. Kids are at school, DH works long hours and I spend 2 days a week in the office but work from home the rest of the week. The commitment of walking dogs and being around for letting them out doesn't work but our last darling dog passed at the beginning of this year and I'm desperately missing having a pet that I can interact with and talk to (even though I've as much chance of getting an answer from a cat as I ever did from a dog )

The idea of a cat appeals to me greatly, more independent than a dog but still around and both the children would love to have a pet again. However and this is my issue, I don't like the idea of cats sleeping upstairs on the beds with us during the night (though the kids would love it) and I wouldn't want a cat up on the kitchen surfaces.

How many of you guys with cats manage to keep them out of bedrooms and off kitchen surfaces? With dogs it was never an issue they couldn't get on surfaces and weren't allowed upstairs.

Also would you recommend always getting two cats rather than one? Thanks

We were in the same position as you OP, and ended up getting a pair of young cats (6months) sisters. They are fab! They sleep downstairs as we close the upstairs doors. They do walk on the kitchen worktops at times, but we just wipe them down before doing any food prep. They are indoor cats and the only down side is cleaning out the litter tray. Their poos stink!!!!

I have 2 cats who regularly get on kitchen sides despite being removed EVER time.
Mine have learnt to open internal doors so to shut them in anywhere means tying door handles together (But I'm 99% sure they've almost cracked that )
They often bring me both dead and alive presents which you have to be grateful for.
Just had to abandon this post as one jumped right past me onto the top of the kitchen cupboards
Saying that I love the furry little bastards they are my babies and I wouldn't be without them.
Especially when they INSIST in sitting on your lap digging they're claws in you purring away while they go to sleep.

Ours don’t go on the kitchen surfaces, due to being put on the floor consistently, however I never prepare food on the work tops directly, just in case - I always use chopping boards. One has learned not to get on the table at mealtime, but the other is either stupid or doesn’t care. However, ime no cat can resist temptation in the form of proper meat like roast chicken, beef, etc left on the table unattended.

We let ours sleep with us, because now they just scratch the carpets up, if shut out a room. No doubt, if we had shut them at night in the kitchen from kitten hood, they would be used to it.

I am owned by two Persians. They have never been on the work tips as they can't jump that high. This is a huge advantage as it also means I can have windows open and they won't escape!

My cats like sleeping with me. One of them isn't an issue, but the other wakes me up. If I shut them out she just yowls even louder and scrapes at the door.

I once shut my cats out of my bedroom because they were parading round and waking a noise.

I woke up wanting a pee as one does - went to open the door and the cats had pulled the carpet up so it got jammed under the door and I couldn't get out!

Cue 20 minutes trying to manoeuvre the carpet out from under the door trying not to think about my bladder, while the cats looked on with amusement!

I don't agree with the whole "a cat owns you not the other way around" we got our kitten at 8 weeks old. At first he would go on the dinning table and kitchen work surfaces but I simple would just scare him and chuck him off. By 14 weeks old he got the message and doesn't dare climb on them. Even now (he's one and a half) he knows to not go on them.

My cat sleeps on the landing we keep the doors closed so he can't get in to the bedrooms.
That basically the only way you can keep them out. If ours cries to much then we put him outside. He soon got the idea to be quiet. He has his bed on the landing and he's happy to stay there.

So yeah.. you can train cats aswell as dogs.

Our cats aren't allowed in bedrooms. I just keep the doors closed! Kitchen surfaces they do go on, but I never place food directly on surfaces and clean them twice a day. We've not developed any nasty diseases thus far!

Dp doesn’t like our cats going into his room.

They don’t bother going into any of the other rooms that are open. They only want to go into this one room that has the door closed.

As soon as Dp opens the door to come out of the room they are in. They wait outside the door and rush past him and jump onto the high cabinets and look down at him shouting at them.

He went into hospital at one point and the door got left open.
Within moments they were all (we have 5) lounging on the bed that is in there

@Mumof1andacat exactly that.

I've had cats all my life, and only had one that liked getting on the worktops in the kitchen. We did train her out of it though. You need to make that sort of "AAAaaa" noise, much as you would make to a small child about to touch a breakable ornament.

Cats will sleep where they like. Don't bother getting a cat bed, they will view it with utter disdain and curl up on a pile of clean laundry waiting to be ironed instead. Or will disappear altogether to some comfy hideaway you'll never be able to find (like in a 6 inch gap behind the furniture), and reappear as if by magic when they are peckish.

Just got a rescue cat a week ago but owner a cat from being a kitten a few years ago too. My current cat so far has no interest in the kitchen worktops, she's not even that much of a fan of the beds and prefers the sofa. She sleeps downstairs at night with no issues. She's so placid. I barely knows she's there most of the time and that's before I let her out lol my previous cat was a menace and did go up on kitchen worktops and tables but I wasn't very consistent in telling him off for it so no wonder. He would have gone anywhere in the house had I let him but you do become more relaxed than you think once you've got them. It is also true that cats own you not the other way around. They don't listen to instruction and will do what they want lol

Watch Simon's Cat videos. They're practically a documentary

Arthur who is part Bengal, loves to be up high. However, we have managed to "train" him to only go up on the utility room surface, which is his room, and is where he eats, and to sleep in his two hammocks, one on the kitchen radiator and one in the lounge. He used to sleep on the top of the sofas, but made them dirty, so we got the hammocks instead. Every so often he remembers the sofa's but a quick stern word and he jumps off immediately.

He is shut in the kitchen at night, and with his cat flap, comes and goes as he pleases.

He loves one of our DD's beds. Never sleeps on the others, and actually we are having a hard time trying to get him to stop. DD loves him, but wants him to stop as he brings in dirt and bits from the garden, and the odd flea and tick, and that is really not a good thing. Every time he comes in she is removing him and putting him on blanket box on the landing, it has a rug on, and he knows it is his, and of course is up high again, and he can look down to the hall to see what is going on. We'll see if he gets the idea.

Do it OP, you'll never look back. Having cats is utterly wonderful! You'll forgive all their misdemeanours, when they give you the 'big eyes'. You'll be putty I. Their paws. And it's the best thing to be. Nothing better than coming home from a 12 hour shift and Cheddar yelling at me to pick her up and cuddle her!

I think having cats does mean you need to accept a few inconveniences.
Our carpet is knee deep in fur 90% of the time.

If you ban cats from surfaces, they'll probably just sit on them when you are not looking out of spite.
They do bring home unwanted guests occasionally (dead rodents, live rodents, birds, fleas).
However - they are great company, endlessly entertaining and to my mind hugely attractive little animals each with their own character.
I wouldn't be without them.
And to answer your last question. Get two - they will really keep each other amused.

I love Mr C, a vast elderly tabby, more than anyone. He's not a pet, he's my partner.

He's saved my life when the block I live in caught fire, he sleeps on my head with his tail round my neck and he interrupts everything I do being ludicrously funny and sweet. In return, I do everything he wants.

He's my beating heart. You'll never look back. Promise.

I've always had cats, and would definitely recommend. Proper little characters but a lot lower maintenance than dogs as they tend to come and go as they please. Be under no illusions as to your new position as 'staff' in your own home however! Cats are in charge

Whether you are a parent or "staff" does depend on the cat.

Biggie has a Daddy. Gatsby has a Mum. Jayda sometimes has a Mum and sometimes has a slave - depends on how she feels

Haha agnurse, our cat has minions 😂

Our female cat Tarot has decided the whole house is hers (except the pantry and the utility that she isn't allowed in. She is ver' ver' dissapointed in us that we are putting barriers/locked doors in her way (even though its for her own good)

Our male Dexter , spent 10 hours under DD bed yesterday while Tarot slept on her desk.
They had to be locked away securely for half an hour and decided if they were going to be herded then they would dictate the terms .
"We didn't choose to be shoved in here but we can choose when we leave . So we choose not to" .

BTW - the phrases knitting fog and herding cats .................I've found out the herding cats one is based on truth