I scored the cat tree off of Freecycle, as well as the small stand beside it that will be perfect for a flat-screen TV, and fed the cats there for a few days trying to get them to accept it. But it smells like some other cat, so they don't want anything to do with it. After The Mighty Fang ate his fill, I put him on the top rung of the cat tree, and rather than hop down he decided to get up on the fireplace and watch Mencken eat instead. Then after watching Mencken eat for a while the perverse cat walked to the other side of the fireplace and jumped down to the floor from there, rather than hop down the platforms of the cat tree. Yes, 20 pounds of black cat hitting a wooden floor from five feet up makes a big "WHOMP!" sound... though the actual amount he dropped was more about three feet, since he stretched downwards with his front paws while his hind paws stayed on the edge of the fireplace, then pushed off. (Yes, TMF is over two feet from front to back when he stretches like that!)
-- Badtux the Cat-owned Penguin
You can tell he's huge from this picture alone.
ReplyDeleteIt was easy with the word verification because it was my last name which is unusual to say the least.
Perhaps what you need to do is make it smell like a mouse.
ReplyDeleteCheers!
JzB
WV: igobever. An ancient Kenton tune I performed just a few days ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyMT_kVJQb4
Wait until these fellas get a bit older, and see what they'll buffalo you into building. My husband built a big ramp for Grey Kitty as she entered late middle age. You commented on my post on this a while ago, Badtux (which is maybe why this post made me think of my old post?).
ReplyDeleteNow I see you're inching closer to total obeisance to your kittehs. As well you should.
OMG, I would love to meet TMF someday.
Put some catnip on it... Slather it in catnip. I am pretty sure that if you do that they will not be able to resist. And then they will not care what other cat it smells like once they have spent enough time climbing the crap out of it.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Good suggestion, Connecticut. I'll have to see if I have any catnip handy, I'm only a few blocks from a pet supply store if I don't.
ReplyDeleteSungold, yeah, but what if they don't want to use what I build? I set up that cat tree to make it easier for TMF to get up and down from the fireplace mantle, and he just ignores it!
JZb, I'm sorry, but dead mouse is one smell I have no intention of having in my house!
OneFly: Those are big decorative (but useful) kerosene lanterns that he is dwarfing. Not small ones, the full-sized ones. I don't realize how big he is often because he has a tiny head compared to the rest of his body, which makes him look kinda small if looking at him in isolation with nothing else around. It's when he's taking up two chairs, or dwarfing objects immediately beside him, that suddenly it becomes clear just how big he is (eep!).
- Badtux the Cat-owned Penguin
It's the rubbing-the-mouth-on-it thing, I bet. The more polite way of marking territory that cats do. I reckon the previous cats did that with the climbing post and yours know all about it.
ReplyDeleteI should have been more clear.
ReplyDeleteI meant essence of LIVE mouse.
Cheers!
JzB
Make it smell like YOU. Rub your hands all over it. Hang your dirty laundry on it for a few days.
ReplyDeleteFollowing up on Nangleator: Give 'em your bedspread. Place your laptop at the apex. If that doesn't work, drape your darlin' self over the whole mess.
ReplyDeleteIf you build it, they will come.
But as you've already noticed, the game is to make you build it. Not having ever met TMF, I can still easily picture him plotting new ways to get your to leap through hoops.