How many safety latches am I going to have to install???

[LWolf]

The cat. She opens cupboards and rummages around. So, I purchase safety latches and install them on every cupboard door. That's 14 latches, for 7 cupboards, 2 doors each. Problem solved, right?

So, I stumble out of bed this morning, after she's been pestering me for awhile like Simon's cat, and find, on the floor at the foot of the bed, a tea towel. I look further and see a trail of tea towels and pot holders, all formerly clean and neatly folded. I follow them into the kitchen and find that she's emptied the drawer they were in, opened the rest, and thrown most of what was in them onto the floor, then batted them around until the place looks like she took the egg beater to it.

I counted the drawers. 16. Sixteen more safety latches to buy and install, counting the drawers in the kitchen and bathrooms.

What's next?

[bluedigger]

1. Post pics?

[LWolf]

2. Someday I'm going to figure out

how to get pics off the phone so I can.

[Thegonagle]

14. Use the phone's messaging feature to e-mail the photos to yourself.

On most plans, it costs the same as a text message--or no extra cost if you have a text message plan.

[redwitch]

18. Ask the cat to teach you.

Smart kitty.

[pipi_k]

3. I feel your pain...

Two German Shepherds.

Any kind of paper is fair game for being shredded.

We have magnetic catches on the kitchen cabinets (used to have bungee cords on them).

A hook and eye lock on the main bathroom door for use when we're not home so they don't go after the toilet paper.

Paper towels and napkins on the table/counters.

This morning I dropped a little newspaper on the floor by accident before leaving the house for breakfast out. Came back to shreds.

Animals will always figure out some way to outsmart their humans.

[sakabatou]

4. I wish I could clone my cat and send her too you

The only thing she opens are doors.

[GoCubsGo]

5. I knew this was going to be about a cat before I even clicked on it.

[surrealAmerican]

6. Your cat is very smart ...

... and bored. That's a bad combination.

[LWolf]

8. She wants outside.

I'm trying to keep her safe. It's a constant battle. This morning she rushed the door when I was coming in from morning barn chores, tripped me, and made her escape while I was cussing and picking myself up. It took me 30 minutes of crawling around in the frost, under bushes, to catch her.

We have coyotes, hawks, and owls that are hard on cat populations. She needs to stay indoors. She has toys; lots of them. When I'm gone during the day, I can recreate her movements by looking at where all the toys have moved to. She has scratching posts. She has perches. Nothing is enough. She wants out.

This spring I'm going to screen in the covered porch; there is a cat door to that porch I've kept locked. Once I've made it escape-proof, maybe the porch will keep her happy.

[riderinthestorm]

12. Unfortunately, I bet it won't make her happy. Not until she can go outside.

I've had 2 cats like that, both neutered males who were strays dumped at the farm - who never "settled" inside the house. Like your situation the outside is dangerous here for cats.

One of the two cats I had actually broke out the upstairs window screens and jumped from the second floor - repeatedly (we never opened the downstairs windows). When we kept the windows closed, he'd body-slam the glass. It was a really old farm house and the panes of glass were those small rectangles set within a framework of wood slats - yup, he actually managed to take out several panes of glass (they weren't held in very well), shredded the screen and jumped out. It was all so dangerous! He's lucky he never injured himself.

The other one just shit all over the house. Refused to use the litterbox, any litterbox. We even tried keeping him locked in a bathroom with a litterbox and he'd shit in the sinks, the shower and all over the floor (besides the constant destruction of claws on the doors and frames AND the crazy cat howls).

After about a month of increasingly crazy behavior, I simply let them out. They were miserable inside with me and after living semi-feral lives they simply never settled indoors. They both lived contentedly outside lives in the barns for many years - friendly, sociable, responsible kitties.

Now I don't fight it - my cats can come and go in and outdoors as they wish. I have 4 at the moment - one is at least 17 years old (dumped here as an adult male so he's probably older but since I've had him 17 yrs, I always say he's that old), the others are @ 8 and 4 years old. The most recent was dumped just before Thanksgiving and is definitely a kitten. None of my cats have been lost to coyotes, owls or the other predators.

Good luck with your girl but unfortunately, she too may never settle as an indoor cat.

[LWolf]

15. I lost 2 cats

from a feral litter I rescued at a young age. They were socialized, they loved people, they loved cuddling and attention, but they didn't want to be indoors. I lost the first at 1 year, the 2nd at 2 years, and swore I wouldn't feed any more cats to the local predators.

This girl is active, smart, and intense. If I were home all day, she'd probably be fine. She just wants more stimulation than she can devise all on her own.

[tosh]

7. Safety latches are useless.

My late, great marley was once a patient at a famous veterinary school hospital. She escaped her "professional grade" cage three times before they resorted to DUCT TAPE!

(I was so proud of her! )

[LWolf]

9. So I should duct tape all the cupboards and doors?

[tosh]

11. Realistically speaking,

it could come down to that.

[harmonicon]

10. No, no, no. You're going about this all wrong.

If she can get out the tea towels, she can dry the dishes. Start training that behaviour next. Eventually she'll be making breakfast.

[LWolf]

16. .

The dog would, if she could. The cat? Well, it would make an entertaining video, anyway.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. Take a close look at her paws. Is she developing thumbs?

Actually, I don't think cats really need thumbs; they're pretty good at getting into things even without them. The dresser drawer where I keep my fuzzy socks is often found mysteriously open, and the socks are strewn around the house. One of my cats dragged my fleece jacket from my bedroom, down a hallway, down the stairs, through the dining room and into the living room the other day (I have no idea what he intended to do with it). And a lot of the stuff in my house just... moves. Thumbs? Meh, who needs them?

[NV Whino]

17. Is your cat related to mine?

Beau isn't quite that bad, but no door is safe, cabinet or room door.