Cats and Wiring

[up1950s]

Make a mixture of thinned white glue and lots of powdered red pepper . Wipe on wires , and legs of table . Revenge is spicy .

[Doug G.]

That would keep me away too - I don't like wintergreen flavor! 

Yeah, 'cause otherwise, Pete would chew the wires too.

 

Doug

[JanesCustomTrain]

Cat stew ?

Jane

[basementcalling]

[ Guests cannot view attachments ] kOh but this is so much fun.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[eric220]

As one who has rescued a very loving and wonderful cat after someone shot her in the face with an arrow, I would like to respectfully point out that some of us don't find suggestions of animal cruelty to be terribly funny, but rather very poor taste. I would respectfully request that further discussion refrain from suggestions of brutally killing a pet.

[nickelplate759]

I too have helpful kitties.   As a kitten, one of them used to like to get up ON the layout (which is 50" above the floor!), and from there get up onto an 8' book case!   Now they are content to get up under the layout and go to sleep, but they do tug on wires, and one likes to find things on my workbench and turn them into toys.   I did find an RS3-shell (fortunately just the shell) being batted around one day.

I've had the most success with either a. making fragile things (including wires) inaccessible or b. providing something of greater kitty-interest as a substitute.  That said, I'm constantly amazed by what the cats think are interesting.   One day one of them had a grand time beating the heck out of a vicious HDMI cable.

George

[brokemoto]

..............in consideration of the request of one of our fellow modellers on this forum, I shall refrain from posting the photograph of my girlfriend's Tweety Birds' holding hammers.................

[Hamaker]

eric220.....I'm with you !  Nothing funny at all.  But it does tell me a lot about the people making them

[Doug G.]

Most people I have known who don't like cats are/were operating from preconceived notions or disinformation from liars. I have also known several who have been completely won over when they discover what wonderful creatures cats are.

Doug

[peteski]

I think that things are getting blow out of proportion.

While I haven't posted any of the offending posts, personally I found them amusing and I didn't for a moment  think that any of them were serious.  Lighten up for goodness sakes!  This touchy-feely political correctness is really getting to be too much.  I think that we all should just sit down and watch Blazing Saddles (again)! 

I had 2 cats own me and I greatly enjoyed their company.  One lived for 20 years.   Cats are intelligent and cuddly creatures.  Unlike dogs which require constant care and attention, they can fend for themselves just fine.  That is one of many things I like about cats.

[Albert in N]

Just wondering if your cat also bothers lamp cords, appliance cords, or other open wiring in other parts of the home?  We have had an indoor cat for many years, along with various indoor train layouts with no problems.  My thought would be to use indoor cat chow from Purina, along with occasional catnip and treats (Whiskas or other).  Outdoor cats like to nibble on yard grass.  Indoor cat food has some fiber content to offset this.  It sounds like this cat seems to crave something.  Of course some individual cats can do weird things, just like oddball dogs with quirky habits.  My sister-in-law lived with us during a move and her cat could not be trained to stay off the train layout.  I simply stored the good stuff after running trains.  It was not destructive, but why take a chance?  Our current cat, a large Bombay tom, knows I do not want him bothering the train layout, so he doesn't.  He has his own basket of toys (old sewing spools etc.)   When I am in the recliner, he jumps into my lap and warms my arthritic knees.  That cat was a homeless stray that won me over by taking out rats that came into our yard from the field several years ago.  We took him to the vet for shots and check up, then adopted him as our indoor cat.

[StewRRFan]

Thanks for the suggestions.  Most are workable.  Others might involve jail time so we will avoid those. 

The cat will only go after small low voltage cords.  Will not touch a lamp cord but has gotten phone cords and Iphone chargers.  - Ross

[jimktrains]

You could try a cover of aluminum foil. Cats generally don't like the texture.

I've tried that.  But it's really hard to wrap a cat in aluminum foil!

[eric220]

While I haven't posted any of the offending posts, personally I found them amusing and I didn't for a moment  think that any of them were serious.  Lighten up for goodness sakes!  This touchy-feely political correctness is really getting to be too much.  I think that we all should just sit down and watch Blazing Saddles (again)! 

Peteski, you may have found them amusing, but many of us did not. For me, I have far too many times found myself helping to clean up the aftermath of some very serious cruelty to cats. There are many people that think that it's funny or acceptable to be cruel to cats, and take suggestions like those that have been offered here seriously. Overall, these cats versus layout threads always devolve into a myriad of suggestions on ways to torture or kill cats. I don't see that with layouts versus dogs or any other pets. It seems to be a unique thing with cats, and I'm not sure why it's acceptable.

As to Blazing Saddles, if you're saying that to defend the telling of offensive or hurtful jokes, then yes, I encourage you to watch it again.

[timgill]

Seems like one solution could be to construct a lightweight (MDF or Masonite) lid to seal up the bottom of the layout. Such an enclosure could be removable, using velcro; build it in small panel sections so you can access one area at a time.

You could construct a similar "Box" to cover the power cables going to the wall; even paint it the same color as said wall and get brownie points for making the train space look cleaner.

Above materials have the extra benefit of being cheap and easy to work with.