Forget Kids

[rainbabies]

it's much cooler looking than it sounds. your kitchen is beautiful! i love the windows. when are you going to post more pictures of your house? hmmmm?? :waiting: i believe you mentioned doing that months ago. :waiting:

I had to go back and take another look to find the "mess". Ahem.

I could be okay with farm outdoor cats but only if they are vaccinated and FIXED. I hate it when people don't fix their cats and contribute to feral cat colonies or the pet population in general...unless they are reputable breeders. :soapbox:

DCJenn,
Your kitchen is BEAUTIFUL! And, yeah, where's the mess?

[DCJenn]

vaccinated and FIXED

Definitely-

2/3 of the outdoor kitties are fixed (by the previous owners) and the last one is finally letting me get close enough to pet him- and once he lets me- he'll be on his way to the clinic.

According to the previous owners, the people on the street all pitched in to do a cat round up on one weekend and as a result, we don't seem to have quite the stray problem that other parts of town do.

Jenn

[pstone]

Farm? what about the birds they kill?

I don't think anyone said they hate animals, I just want others to take care of theirs like I do with mine. My dog would love to be outside all the time too, but I am the human so he is in our yard or the house.

[poky]

Another in the indoor-only, not-on-the-counters-and-tables crowd, though I do realize that there are some cats you just plain can't keep indoors, and the best you can do is fix them so they won't perpetuate the problem by adding more generations of feral cats. If you feed them, they're less likely to damage the local wildlife, too.

Ours are indoor more because we want THEM to live longer and healthier than out of respect for neighbors' flower gardens, though; the lack of intrusion on others' property is just an added benefit. I've never minded neighborhood cats in our yard, but I know we've never had a really bad situation with them, either.

[Meenah]

My cats are indoor and I try to keep them off counters but sometimes it is impossible. I have a spray bottle with water in almost every room!!!!! ANy other tips to keep them off?

[DCJenn]

Well my big doggie is afraid of the cats.

I was just on the Riverwalk with Petey and I have to say even on leashes there are dogs that shouldn't be allowed in public- or people who need to learn that the dog is not the boss.

There were dogs lunging at us, barking at us, etc. At least every few blocks there are doggie poop bags and trash cans so there isn't that problem to deal with for the most part...

Jenn

When I was a teenager my Mum WAS the crazy cat lady. We had up to 13 or 14 cats at one time. They were mostly acquired from a crazy old lady who decided to leave her cats to my Mum. A few though were strays that gradually became part of the family. She would encourage them into a shed with food so she could take them off to be fixed, then she would feel sorry for them..."oh we'll just feed him in the shed"...."oh we'll just feed him on the porch"..."oh look he is coming into the house with the others now". It is a slippery slope DC Jenn!

They were all mostly indoor cats but we would let them out a couple times a day so we could get some peace (we lived in the boonies so there was no issue of damaging others property).

Our border collie was on full time cat minding duty, keeping them off the counters, out of the bedrooms etc!

Even before that we never had exclusively indoor cats, I find that strange, but then we always lived in the country so never had to worry about the cats getting hit by a car.

Now, I have got my fill of cats, I dont dislike them but have no desire to have one. We really want a dog but need to wait til next year when we won't both be working and we will have a yard (hopefully).

[planet]

I was thinking about you guys and this thread today. We had a picnic lunch at the beach, which would have been perfect except for the two loose dogs and their uncaring owner. My boys like dogs, but they have been taught to ask the owner before petting dogs. One of the dogs, big one, came right up to the table and stuck its nose in the boys' tummys and crotches. My guys looked at me like, 'what do we do?' But the dog ran off to another table before we did anything. The owner hollered at the people at the other table asking if they saw a second dog. One of them pointed to the other dog taking a dump in the middle of the picnic area. Do you think the guy cleaned it up or even cared?

So...you were on my mind today iMSNers. You and the debate forum and bad animal owners.

[mommax3]

Hey Luanne,

Try foil on the counters/tables that the cat prefers to jump on. If they land on the foil, they won't like the noise and hopefully after a few times they will stop wanting to get up there.

My cats are indoor only, also, and aren't allowed on the table or countertops. They do have a cat tower, though. In our bedroom.

I would rather have a strange cat in my yard than a strange dog any day.

Sally

[poky]

Try foil on the counters/tables that the cat prefers to jump on. If they land on the foil, they won't like the noise and hopefully after a few times they will stop wanting to get up there.

Sticky tape can do it, too - a strip of duct tape, sticky side up, with just the very edges turned under to hold it to the countertop - they hate the feel of stepping on something sticky.

My cats are indoor only, also, and aren't allowed on the table or countertops. They do have a cat tower, though. In our bedroom.

Is that something to be embarrassed about? Ours have at least two. Plus several smaller things that are basically scratching posts with platforms on top. Not all in the bedroom, and there are four of them, but still...

...then again, they're not nearly as spoiled as the cat of friends of ours, who was so spoiled they would put his blanket in the dryer for him every morning so it would be warm for him. We've never felt bad about "spoiling" our cats after hearing about that.

[rainbabies]

how about mouse traps. they always work. snap goes the trap and off goes the paw!!






















just kidding

Sticky tape can do it, too - a strip of duct tape, sticky side up, with just the very edges turned under to hold it to the countertop - they hate the feel of stepping on something sticky.

Contact paper, too.