Adoption Jungle

I know of many people who are resigned to their cats jumping up on their tables and kitchen counters but we’re not those people. We’ve tried putting aluminum foil on those surfaces, sticky tape and vigilance to use a squirt bottle. All to know avail. What are we suppose to do? Scat Mat maybe?

So, I ordered a 30×16 scat mat from Safe Pet Products and we’re in process of seeing if it works. It came neatly rolled up in a box with a booklet of instructions. It’s all but obvious what you have to do to use it. Unroll it, grab a 9v battery and install it in the control unit, attached the control unit to the mat and turn the unit on. The only reason I read the directions was to understand how the on/off/setting switched worked – very simple.

Of course using the mat effectively is what we need to do and there’s no guidance for this other than trial and error. My house, my cats and my wife and I are unique and we need to solve our problems. We can easily learn from others but this appears to be a simple task with need for some means to determine success.

We have put the mat on a kitchen counter at night and the kitchen table and island during the day. My wife joked we may need more mats to cover all the areas on the kitchen we want the cats to learn to stay away from. Time will tell as we investigate how well this one mat works.

This is a close up of the mat and you can see the conductive rings embedded in the mat. When pussy touches these the controller senses a connection and gives a brief jolt. When set to low, the jolt is truely low level.

What is success?

Beyond keeping our cats off the counters and tables in the kitchen which is obvious is how do we know that the cats are staying off? One answer is to put things on these surfaces that if moved indicate the cats have been there. Another is to put up a video camera and record activity in the kitchen for later review. Perhaps there are others ways.

We’ve opted for the camera technique because I have what I need to do this. I’ll post the results later after I have them.

To be continued.

I took Mattie to the Petco Sunday adoption event and amidst quite a few kitten of various colors and kinds Mattie, our full black 8 week old kitten got adopted by a very nice family with dog and a child.

I spelled Barbara who normally takes in these events with Mattie and Tildie. There had to be fifteen kittens and a few adults that day. I spend time chatting up suspects and it was no different for the woman and her college age daughter. They had a cat but had to put it down recently and we looking for a new cat and thought a kitten would be good but wanted one that would accept a dog in the house.

I didn’t know if Mattie or Tildie were naturally able to handle a dog but at Petco big dogs came and went that morning barking away and both my kitties didn’t flinch. So I mentioned that to the woman and her daughter. They looked over kitties and I offered them to come and pick up Mattie and/or Tildie and they did. The daughter kvelled over Mattie who was just a doll at the event. Tildie was not coming out of her shell but Mattie was all sunshine and brightness.

Long story short they did take Mattie, I shared feeding and acclimation information with them and off they went.

Finn, Tildie and Mattie came to us and after we worked with all three…

A couple and their 3 kids saw  Finn on PetFinder and came specifically to Petco to see see him. They arrived at Petco at 6pm and the rest is history. Very easy and quick.

It’s called failure to foster when a foster family decides to keep a kitten rather than give it up for adoption. I call it just love.

We the latest litter I find myself imaging giving them all up and once again having no pets of our own. No pet that actually cares it’s me and me not having one to care about specially. It’s getting harder and harder to continue trouping them into my life and out again.

Well, I helped nurse Cadet from the little, lost kitten he was into the thriving gorgeous kitten he’s become and I don’t want him to slip through my fingers like Mish and Dexter before him. Meanwhile Trask also caught my eye but in the end talking with Barbara we decided that one would be it and I naturally thought of Cadet.

Then, believe it or not, Barbara says to me “… and what about me, you have Cadet what do I have?” and we decide to keep Trask too.

This wasn’t failure of any kind, this was just the right time for them and for us.

An old coworker of Barbara’s (pure coincidence), SherryL, called ARM and found out about these two and asking to see them even before they were neutered snatched them up.

It was just a few days ago and they are gone, to a good hone, we look forward to hearing about them in the future.

Posted from my tablet

Supposedly the sister to Cadet has just joined us while we still have the four. She’s just a tad bigger and has the same personality which is really quite pleasant. One of her eyes needs attention (isn’t that always the case) so we’ve lots of experience with this troupe so this one will be no more challenging.

Pictures coming soon.