Heeeelllp T-T

[soc_puppet]

Guys... Guys, help.

See, the one roommate went out to this thing with his girlfriend and the other roommate's brother and his girlfriend and a mutual friend of all of ours, and they won't be back until Wednesday. And RemainingRoommate's brother and girlfriend asked us to catsit.

Puck is... Well, he's a cat. There's not much more to say on the matter.

Actually, I lied. There's plenty more on the matter.

The air conditioner in our apartment is still broken (how recently have I mentioned that it's been broken? well, it's still broken from then, whenever that is), and the days have been getting into the 80s recently. So Puck isn't very active during the day.

Problem is, he becomes active at night. Given that RR (hi, RR in the future who is potentially reading this!) and I already have a problem getting to sleep from the heat, how RR has to keep her door open so Puck can access the litter box, how RR's-brother-and-girlfriend's sleep schedule is completely different than ours (so they play with him way after we usually get to bed), and how I have to keep my door closed most of the time to keep him from terrorizing the rats, this becomes a much bigger problem for RR's ability to get sleep. Because he really, really wants to play. And I'm kinda not usually available for it.

So tonight, since I can sleep in at least a little tomorrow, I'm staying up, at least partly to distract him. It is... giving me mixed results. He's hidden the toys he loves, he's already gotten over the new toy I just tried to introduce him to (though it had favorable reactions for a while), and now he's decided that the new best toy in the whole wide world? My right leg >_< His claws haven't been trimmed recently, either T-T No serious damage yet, but that's kiiiinda why I'm stepping away from play-time just now.

Which means that he'll potentially go to bother RR some more, though I hope he's been tired out for at least an hour or so.

We also can't keep him off the table, or the kitchen counter tops, and yes, he's already broken one glass vase (we probably should've just put them all away the second we found out he was developing an interest in plants, but I guess we were naive).

This is very rapidly making me not a cat person. At all. When, up until this weekend, I had been fairly sure I was one.

((Trainable animals from now on. Or fish. And that's all. No more cats. They will drive me insane.))

So, uh. You cat lovers and owners support staff out there. Any advice for a kitty-sitter?


In other news, I planted flowers with my family this afternoon, used a 40% off coupon on the Azumanga Daioh omnibus at Waldenbooks, and ordered a copy each of The God Eaters and Yuri Monogatari 5 at 20% off at Prairie Lights (they couldn't seem to order YM6, more's the pity; guess I'll just have to wait). Tomorrow, I go to Half-Price Books with my family, and resist the urge to buy too much stuff.

Oh, also, proj_writeaway; here is a post on what it's about, with thoughts and stuff.

And now, I distract myself with the television run of Night at the Museum again. Wanna see sequeeeellll :+

ACK, PUCK, GET DOWN OFF THE KITCHEN SINK!

Comments

[inarticulate]

Cats can be trained! But not someone else's cat, yeah. Okay, a few things: cats don't like to be moved. I'm assuming, considering he's broken a vase, that he's been temporarily relocated from elsewhere? That's not helping matters, I'd guess. When I catsit, I do so with the cats remaining at their usual home.

Is there a reason that the litterbox needs to be accessible through RR's room? Because my immediate response to that situation would be to move the litterbox and let her close her door, too. Cats are pretty independent beasties, and, with you guys (and hopefully anything breakable) safely behind doors, he should be able to amuse himself.

[soc_puppet]

Y-yeah, someone else's cat is definitely not something all that trainable by someone else.

They actually live half an hour away, so I guess it was decided by the parties mostly involved that it would be most efficient and stuff to just keep him over here. Considering he's fed twice a day, and the price of gas even here, near the refineries, it does tend to add up a bit :/

It's currently set up in RR's room, I think for smell reasons. But we've got Pet-Odor Specific Febreeze, so I might be able to talk her into moving it into the kitchen or the bathroom, perhaps. We'll see.

Anyhow, thank you for the suggestions!

[inarticulate]

Sob, exactly. I'm having my own adventures in catsitting now, where the owners were like "haha, you don't need to clean up any messes," and I was like "haha, it'll only be one or two," and... n-no, the cats throw up like... daily. So... I can sympathize in the "8(" aspect, at least?

Aaah, the distance makes sense. But the relocation is still probably going to make him antsier, clingier, and possibly more destructive (y-your poor leg). And the fact that he's someone else's means that claw-clipping is probably out of the question (and CERTAINLY isn't your responsibility) so. D| Yeah, cutting down on his access seems it would be worth a shot?

Bathroom is probably a good bet-- smell-related is less of an issue there for obvious reasons and odor products are pretty easy to use there, so it's a good place and easy to clean up if there are any accidents/spills.

[hugs] WHATEVER YOU GUYS GO WITH, good luck. And may the rats have the run of the apartment again soon.

[ysabet.livejournal.com]

You need a God!Gun. Simple enough; it's a spray-bottle, the more powerful the better. Fill it up with water (and you're better off each having one and keeping a third somewhere else handy in your place) and only use it in specific circumstances. What I mean is, don't use it when he's being overly loud or doing something minor; use it for making him leave you alone in bed and to keep him off the countertops. He'll learn pretty quick what gets him a facefull of waterspray.

One good thing to *always* ask when you petsit is how the owners discipline their pets; if they say something like "Oh, we don't usually bother," then you're in for trouble. I love my furry family enormously, but Bob The Manx'll try to get away with whatever he can, and Spot thinks she's allowed to eat my dinner. (The spray, sadly, doesn't work on my ferrets; they just think it's refreshing and interesting.)

Anyway, if you've got one handy go wash it out thoroughly and fill it up; keep it by the bed (along with a towel in case you spray yourself, it happens a lot.) Or pick a few up at the local thrift store.

[soc_puppet]

Okay, that's two votes for spray bottle now. It's sounding like the best choice (though a former employer's ultimate weapon became the Airzooka).

I think they mostly shut him in a room/his carrier and/or put him in the bath tub. Which is all well and good, except that I don't know if it's really immediate enough for us, and how the "time out" method would require us to let him out as soon as he needed the litterbox (since shutting him in with RR hardly seems like the best option here).

I'll have to dig around. I don't think I've actually got any of my own, but I will be going out today, so I should be able to pick some up then if I don't.

[violetsquirrel.livejournal.com]

Get a spray bottle, fill it full of water, spray him when he jumps on things! It... might not work but it might work. Cats have different personalities, my friend's cats jump on tables all the time even though they get sprayed, my cats only had to be yelled at a couple of times when they were younger before they got the idea. It sounds like you need to be tougher with him though, if you're letting him even get to the point where he's decided your leg is something that's okay to play with like that.

For toys I'd suggest something that can't be hidden, like a... I can't think what it would be called but something with a base and then a springy thing to bat at. If that makes sense.

[soc_puppet]

Part of the problem with the "my legs are okay to play with" issue is that I've conditioned myself for responding with a "do not want" in Rat. Which, considering the cue there is to squeak and pull away when they do something you don't like (like biting), prooooobably isn't the best thing to do with a cat :/

A spray bottle is sounding better and better, and I'm starting to be quite sorry we didn't pick one up at Wal*Mart the other night >_< And if that doesn't work, I guess we could see if my brother still has his Airzooka laying around somewhere.

Well, he does have a scratching post with a batting thing at the top. I'll have to see what we can whip up beyond that. Maybe I can find a toy fishing rod somewhere for cheap, since he likes chasing after things that've been thrown...

[violetsquirrel.livejournal.com]

... yeah, that's basically "please eat me" in Cat orz. What you should be doing is pulling away and going NO really firmly and loudly until he gets the idea.

[soc_puppet]

I figured about as much T-T I guess I'll have to work on re-conditioning myself for the weekend. And also wearing thick leggings.

[violetsquirrel.livejournal.com]

Also don't hate cats because of one badly disciplined cat :(

[jadedsoul.livejournal.com]

Going to add another vote for spray bottle; using that and a firm "No!" has usually been enough for the cats my family's owned over the years to get the picture.

In regards to the cat deciding your leg is an awesome toy...yeah, definitely move your leg away when this happens. A gentle tap on the nose (if you can manage it) and another "No!" should give the cat the message if moving your leg doesn't.

Toys! Have any ribbons/string/etc. lying around? They make for great cat toys, as does paper wadded up into balls. They are cheap and cats love playing with them just as much as a store bought toy. Hold the ribbon in one hand and dangle the other end where the cat can see it, or trail it along the floor near where the cat is. Paper balls should just be thrown in the cat's general area and if the cat's interested, they'll hear the paper crinkling and come to investigate. In addition, if you don't mind spending a few bucks, if you go to the arts and crafts department at Wal-Mart or such, buy a bag of the pompoms with sparkly bits in them. All the cats I know go crazy for them and the bag should only be $2 or $3.

Hope the advice helps!

[soc_puppet]

Yes it did, thank you :) Went out and got two spray bottles and a few squirt guns to boot (which I had entirely too much fun using on the poor dear ^^a). Also crocheted up a quick string to chase or two, and sacrificed a few more pages of Twilight to the cause. Really, though, it was the water that made the difference.