[Sca-cooks] Kitten help

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

ah...cat training....:)

seriously, anything you do NOW means a well adjusted adult cat later. Some
hints....

retribution must be immediate and preferrably from a seeminly invisible
hand (ie the "hand of God"). Otherwise they just learn not to do it while
you're there....

the squirt gun fits that bill....you're sitting in the living room, the cat
jumps on the counter, yell "Cat! NO!" and let 'em have it. You're not in
the room, so as far as their walnut sized brains are concerned, its the
HAND OF GOD. I have a supersoaker by the couch....(the little squirtguns
just make pretty drops that are fun to chase)

another thing that works it to take a bunch of empty soda cans. Put a
handful of beans in each one and a piece of tape over the hole. Stack them
on the edge of the counter just inside the edge. Cat jumps on the counter
and gets a loud rattly suprise. Again, HAND OF GOD....that mean human wasnt
even home at the time!

to keep the muffinheads from scratching the furniture you can try the
bitter apple sprays, etc but I didnt find theyworked. In theory you can
cover stuff with tin foil, but my kitten likes to eat the stuff, so that
didnt work. What I found worked is to cover all the attractive surfaces
with a layer of clear packing tape. Made all those lovely clawable surfaces
slickery and that apparently isnt nearly as much fun. Sure my antique arm
chair is rather crinkly now, but at least its not getting its stuffing
clawed out....

now if I can just figure out how to keep the kitten from eating all my
shoelaces. fortunately its sandal season now....

--AM, who's two cats are the bane and joy of her exhistance...