Devil Cats. A million problems.

mrskelligay

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I have two cats, brothers, around the age of 4 years old. The first brother, Baby, I have had since the age of 2 weeks. I bottle-fed him until around 6 or 7 weeks, then a month later, found his real brother at a humane society with the mother of both cats. I only adopted the kitten because I couldn't afford to keep 3 cats at the time. They had no problem getting along at first, I think it was because the were so young at the time.... but that's never been a serious issue... until now... I had to baby-sit a baby kitten for a few days, the cats never warmed up to it, and even had a blockade somewhere in my kitchen with the kitten.... (both are male, neutered) The kitten stayed in my living room, the big cats took over the rest of the house, and if it invaded their side, the big cats went nuts...

They have both grown into huge cats, around 20 lbs. or more. The only breed I can associate them with is the Chartreux breed. Their mother seemed to be a Chartreux, but you never know with stray cats...

They are both strictly indoor cats, I let them outside for a little while every few days, only if I supervise them. I live in an apartment downtown, and there is a parking lot at the bottom of my stairs, so they don't really have a safe place to play/explore.

I have many issues with them getting into just about anything you could imagine. Some of these things really agitate house guests, and my husband... I'm usually not so bothered by them, unless it's a certain issue... which I will explain later.

Cats are obviously curious by nature, which is the only way I can explain some of the weird things they take habit of.... For instance, my cats have taught themselves to open my refrigerator and take lunch meat out and feed themselves, even if they have a full food bowl. I have caught them in the process more than a dozen times, and even literally, I woke up one afternoon to find a package of turkey, a package of cheese, a bottle of mustard ripped out of the fridge, aaaand in the same area, a shredded-up bread bag... Do my cats really know how to make a sandwich?

Not only do they rip into the refrigerator, they rip into my cabinet doors. My husband and I installed magnetized latches for every cabinet door so they couldn't rip into them. That didn't really help, after a while, they just discovered they had to pull a little harder... The brother, Baby, really likes to sit next to a cabinet, open it, let it slam shut and stare at you until you walk over to him... You should see his expression, it's almost like he's only doing these things to taunt you for a second, to make you walk over to him... He looks so bored when he does it... (I'm sure he is in a way, he's strictly an indoor cat)... if you walk away, he just does it again, even if his food bowl is full and he has been "played with" recently with one of his many toys. In my house, nothing can be left out in the kitchen, period.... Even if it's bagged or packaged, we have to hide things that we really want to keep in our microwave because, so far, they haven't gained enough strength in their arms to open that door...

Both of my cats love to play with door knobs. They roll their paws around them as if they are trying to open them... We keep our outside door locked, even though we know they couldn't build up the strength to pull it open, it's a swollen door because rain water has drained into it for so long... However, they are capable of opening locked doors within our house... The only locked door they can open is one leading from our wash room to our pantry because the lock is a little uncentered/weak. This is also the area they go whenever we need a "time out" because of something either of the cats has done, for instance, attacking someone. They can also open our unlocked bedroom door, it doesn't have a lock....

Another habit they have formed, the most annoying to me, is opening our dresser drawers in our bedroom, and taking out socks from the drawers, and carrying them all the way to our living room.... This habit strikes me as the most odd... Our cat, Apple started the habit first.... He would open the drawer, get my husband's socks, and meow, all muffled with the socks in his mouth, carry them through another room, down the hall and into the living room, meowing muffled the entire time until you look at him, or call out his name.... Then he just drops them. A few minutes later, when he's in that mood, he goes and gets another pair.... over and over again until there's almost twenty socks laying next to you... We tried throwing the socks, because they both like to play fetch, but they never played with the socks anytime we tried, so... Usually, if we are awake at this point, we rip out the toys and play with them... That generally takes their mind off of getting even more socks... But, they like to do this when we are either sleeping or just gone out of the house... We'll visit a friend for a few hours, and come home to LITERALLY twenty or more pairs of socks piled in one place in the living room... with a few extra strewn about down the hall... Shutting the bedroom door seems like the most logical answer, however, there's no air conditioning in that room, so we have to leave it open for a while to cool it off.... We've also tried a few brands of the "Stay Off" spray for cats, with many other things, they don't even mind it, they just jump over the scent, roll in it, they just don't care... Oddly, Baby the other brother, never did that... But after Apple started, he picked up the habit about a year later... At first, he never meowed with the socks in his mouth, but a few days ago, he started meowing with them and sounding just like the other cat.... I can't help but call him a copy cat... I mean, this problem isn't terrible or anything, it's just messy to have to clean up sometimes... Not only do they get my husband's socks, they get into my drawer and get my bra's and panties... Sometimes we'll leave a Perfectly clean house, come home with guests and find my bra's and panties in a window seal, with others strewn about the entire house.... This has been happening since the cats were about two years old. Right now, I am looking at about 11 pairs of socks, a couple of bra's, all laying in my living room... because I was sleeping???

I think my cats are aware of the term "no" or just any negative enforcement... I've taken the socks back to the drawer and said "no"/"bad" and they run under the bed... I just don't think they associate, obviously...

The only enforcement we do with them is just saying "no"/"bad" and sometimes putting them in "time out" in our bathroom/washroom for no more than thirty minutes... (Time out is usually only for my cat, Baby, whenever he psychotically chases my husband, and he does this daily) I think it's cruel to lock them up in a way, so they usually never stayed locked up for longer than five minutes, however my husband seems to think it's positive reinforcement... but they don't even really know what they did to get there, or know they did something wrong? Or do they, and they are just rebelling??

Some people think that our cats are wildcats.... Literally... I think they Look pretty normal... But other people seem to think they don't, especially in size and temperment....

They also know the word "bath".... I give them a bath once or twice a month, sometimes less, and anytime I say the word "bath", they run under my bed... Do they really know the word "bath", or do they just know what I'm thinking?

Whatever they do, I will always love them like they are my children, but there are certain things I don't know how to handle properly, like the sock thing.... How do you stop your cats from carrying your bra's to your front door??? I don't care to clean it up, but it embarrassing whenever guests see your panties and bra's laying about.... This happens DAILY in my house... Are they trying to reanimate me when I'm gone? I'm sorry this is so long and all, and I will ,to your dismay, post even more things I can't even begin to think about cramming it into this post... Sorry...
 

abbycats

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Wow they are really smart cats! You have quite the handful!! I had an embarassing moment once when one of my cats ran down the hallway with a pair of my underware in her mouth and dropped them at my feet when I had company over! The underware was a thong!


Looks like you will need to put a padlock on your refrigerator!!!
 
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mrskelligay

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Hahahaha... Wow, I completely understand your embarrassment... My mother always tells me that my cats are jealous of my guests and tries to rid them by embarrassing me somehow.... My cats act a lot worse whenever I have any company over.... They try to get more attention by doing things they know they shouldn't.... Showing off..
 

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They're acting out hunting and catching, and bringing home the prey - and I have no idea what to do about it! Can you ask your vet to refer you to an animal behaviourist who might have an answer?
 
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mrskelligay

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Originally Posted by Larke

They're acting out hunting and catching, and bringing home the prey - and I have no idea what to do about it! Can you ask your vet to refer you to an animal behaviourist who might have an answer?
I've realized that... Like, they are dropping their kill on my front door just like an outdoor cat would do with a bird.... But I can't do anything about it... I don't have a vet who really understands the situation... Just check-ups.... I guess I could ask him, but he'd probably tell me the same thing you said... I mean, I don't really mind it, it's not life - threatening.... but, it is Odd, more than anything... I don't know why they are doing this... Maybe they are "wild" cats?
 

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Well...I can make a few suggestions, but whether they would help you or not, I can't say.

First, you need an auxiliary latch on your refrigerator. You could do it with something as simple as a piece of duct tape, or use a couple of suction cups and a bungie cord, or some such thing. Be warned that your door gasket is likely to take a beating until they stop trying to open it.

Second, you might try washing your socks with a fairly heavy dose of fabric softener. Again, this may be something you'd only have to do for a while, until they got out of the habit of messing in your sock drawer, and it assumes that they wouldn't like the smell...an assumption that may not be accurate.
 

enuja

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I have never heard of a cat who can open a refrigerator! That really shocks me. How do they do it? It usally requires being able to brace yourself against something (we humans stand on the floor and brace ourselves with our feet) in order to use a certain amount of strength to open the door. I guess if your cats are really strong and wedge theselves against a cabinet they could push the door open ... but have you actually seen them open the fridge door? It would be much easier if a human had accidently left the fridge open a little bit.

Instead of trying magnetic cabinet locks, have you tried child saftey locks, there you have to open the cabinet/drawer a little bit and press down on a specific part of the lock? I don't know of any cats that can do that (but, again, I also don't know of any cats who can open a fridge).

I'm also really surprised that your cats can unlock doors, or even open ones with door knobes. I've looked around You-Tube, and the best I've seen is cats opening doors that have the long skinny horizontal handles, not round ones. I've seen videos that purport to show cats opening doors with round knobes, but none that actually do.

You didn't say anything about toys in your post. Do you both toys you can leave out and let them play with themselves, and toys you can get out and play with them with? Do they like chasing laser pointers?

My cats are good at opening cabinets, so I just don't leave any food in bags (rice, ect) in lower cabinets. One of my cats loves to sleep on my clothes that I keep in a cabinet in the kitchen (nice, big kitchen); do you have safe places for your cats to hide that other than your drawers and cabinets? That might be one thing they are looking for in drawers and cabinets.

If you put your underwear inside tupperware containers in your drawers (especially ones with locking handles), even without child saftey locks, that might be hard enough to get into that they don't get into it. Especially if the tupperware containers fit exactly into the drawers, it might take human dexterity to get the containers out and open them.

You say that there are some doors that they can't open; maybe you should just put your clothing dressers in those rooms?
 

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I feel your pain!


I have 5 cats, 3 are boys, brothers. They are 5 years old now and have reached their full growth at 21, 18 and 16 lbs. They literally didnt stop growing until about a year and a half ago.

My boys CAN open a closed door too, they will either lay on their back pulling the door from the bottom or Kiko will stand on his back legs with his paws on the door handle. As far fetched as it sounds, it happens. My boys are really strong and can open cabinets, too.

Luckily I have had no problems with drawers being opened or panty and bra hunters, that would crack me up


I do have a heavy duty fridge, so I dont have any issues with that either, but I could imagine them opening it, if the doors werent so heavy.

I would find some way to keep the fridge closed, though. It could close on one of them while they were inside getting thier sandwich supplies.

Mine will tear open a loaf of bread, too, if it is ever left out.


I, too, just let mine do what they want and put everything away that could hurt them. You gotta love cats.
 

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You can buy refrigerator locks at a baby supply place (Babies R Us or probably even Target or Home Depot.) My friends have one on their fridge that keeps their 2 year old twins out, so I'm guessing it would be good enough for the cats.

Maybe they want to carry something around that smells like you? Maybe you could sleep with a couple of toys (fabric mice or something soft) so they get your smell on them? I guess that's a compliment....unless they're hunting them
 

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I had a cat that could stand on my speaker and open the front door by rolling his paws around it. Then he and Fred brought a feral mother around and she started coming in every time the door opened. She had 2 litters while we were there. I finally had to start trapping them and turning them over to a nearby rescue. Every time I opened my door, I would have a wave of cats come in.
 
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mrskelligay

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Originally Posted by lsanders

You can buy refrigerator locks at a baby supply place (Babies R Us or probably even Target or Home Depot.) My friends have one on their fridge that keeps their 2 year old twins out, so I'm guessing it would be good enough for the cats.

Maybe they want to carry something around that smells like you? Maybe you could sleep with a couple of toys (fabric mice or something soft) so they get your smell on them? I guess that's a compliment....unless they're hunting them
Good idea! I think i will try that. I feel really crappy about my cats opening the fridge... there are claw marks all in the lining of the door where they wedge it open... I hope the landlord/people who live here next don't notice! We use "soft paws" over their nails, but even with those on, they still manage to open doors, or even try, but the damage is far less than it would be without the soft paws.
 
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mrskelligay

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Enuja;2338272 said:
I have never heard of a cat who can open a refrigerator! That really shocks me. How do they do it? It usally requires being able to brace yourself against something (we humans stand on the floor and brace ourselves with our feet) in order to use a certain amount of strength to open the door. I guess if your cats are really strong and wedge theselves against a cabinet they could push the door open ... but have you actually seen them open the fridge door? It would be much easier if a human had accidently left the fridge open a little bit.

Instead of trying magnetic cabinet locks, have you tried child saftey locks, there you have to open the cabinet/drawer a little bit and press down on a specific part of the lock? I don't know of any cats that can do that (but, again, I also don't know of any cats who can open a fridge).

I'm also really surprised that your cats can unlock doors, or even open ones with door knobes. I've looked around You-Tube, and the best I've seen is cats opening doors that have the long skinny horizontal handles, not round ones. I've seen videos that purport to show cats opening doors with round knobes, but none that actually do.

You didn't say anything about toys in your post. Do you both toys you can leave out and let them play with themselves, and toys you can get out and play with them with? Do they like chasing laser pointers?
QUOTE]


Well, I don't think they can magically unlock any door. The only locked door they can open is the door in my washroom that, as I said, has a faulty lock... I see them playing with doorknobs alot... but they also pull at the bottom of the doors.

We do rip out the toys any time that they start bringing socks.... They also have a "toy drawer", it's at the bottom of all drawers in my kitchen, next to the floor. They open this drawer a lot and get out toys and carry them to us every now and then... But we do play with them very often, usually with the "fishing pole"... and laser toys batteries run out so fast, we don't even bother buying them anymore... We can't even get more than one night of playing with it... We also have a lot of catnip in that drawer, which I think gives them even more initiative to open it rather than opening anything else in the house...

They also like getting my hairbands and playing with them, or putting them in their food bowl.... I have a wicker basket with a lid on it in my bathroom, on top of my toilet.... My cat Baby, opens it daily, and digs for the hairbands, then carries them to his food bowl.... I even put all my items in ziplock bags within the basket, but he can still get into them and dig out the rubberbands.

The refrigerator.... Yeah... That's an odd one, and scary to think about one of them getting trapped... It scares me alot to think about... I had a guest who stayed here for a few weeks, and Baby got shut into the dryer because she wasn't looking and shut it on him.... Luckily, the dryer wasn't on... she was just folding the clothes that were already in there... Anytime I do laundry, I check over and over just to make sure a cat hasn't jumped into any machine... My refrigerator lining has many many scars on it from their claws.... I imagine that's how they get into it... somehow...
 
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mrskelligay

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Originally Posted by krazy kat2

I had a cat that could stand on my speaker and open the front door by rolling his paws around it. Then he and Fred brought a feral mother around and she started coming in every time the door opened. She had 2 litters while we were there. I finally had to start trapping them and turning them over to a nearby rescue. Every time I opened my door, I would have a wave of cats come in.
Wow, that's crazy. When we first moved here, there were a lot of stray cats that hung out downstairs... Now, we don't see any... Both of my cats are neutered, and they HATE any other cat, or anything that moves, besides humans... or themselves....
 

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Originally Posted by Enuja

I have never heard of a cat who can open a refrigerator! That really shocks me. How do they do it? It usally requires being able to brace yourself against something (we humans stand on the floor and brace ourselves with our feet) in order to use a certain amount of strength to open the door. I guess if your cats are really strong and wedge theselves against a cabinet they could push the door open ... but have you actually seen them open the fridge door? It would be much easier if a human had accidently left the fridge open a little bit.

Instead of trying magnetic cabinet locks, have you tried child saftey locks, there you have to open the cabinet/drawer a little bit and press down on a specific part of the lock? I don't know of any cats that can do that (but, again, I also don't know of any cats who can open a fridge).

I'm also really surprised that your cats can unlock doors, or even open ones with door knobes. I've looked around You-Tube, and the best I've seen is cats opening doors that have the long skinny horizontal handles, not round ones. I've seen videos that purport to show cats opening doors with round knobes, but none that actually do.

You didn't say anything about toys in your post. Do you both toys you can leave out and let them play with themselves, and toys you can get out and play with them with? Do they like chasing laser pointers?

My cats are good at opening cabinets, so I just don't leave any food in bags (rice, ect) in lower cabinets. One of my cats loves to sleep on my clothes that I keep in a cabinet in the kitchen (nice, big kitchen); do you have safe places for your cats to hide that other than your drawers and cabinets? That might be one thing they are looking for in drawers and cabinets.

If you put your underwear inside tupperware containers in your drawers (especially ones with locking handles), even without child saftey locks, that might be hard enough to get into that they don't get into it. Especially if the tupperware containers fit exactly into the drawers, it might take human dexterity to get the containers out and open them.

You say that there are some doors that they can't open; maybe you should just put your clothing dressers in those rooms?
I have heard of cats that can get in to refrigerator. Here is a video of a bengal that does just that!

I had an abyssinian that used to open cabinets. One day my husband and I heard noise coming from one of our kitchen cabinets. We opened it and Tommy was in the cabinet eating out of the dry cat food bag!!!
 

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do you think that your cats are part Maine Coon??? I have a Coon, and they are a working cat, just like the Border Collie is the working dog of the dog world. My MC, JC, has so much in common with your cats as well as with the 2 Border Collies that I've had in the past.
I find your story facsinating, though it is highly inconvenient for you.
My mom's family calls JC a "monster". He's incredibly strong, too, and extremely intelligent. But he's so outgoing and friendly, like a dog - truly the quintessential "family cat". He is desperate to be an outside, working cat - in his last escape over a year ago, he managed to stay gone 6 days and 5 nights, and was found hunting along a creek on the 6th evening - perfectly happy with his new "Jeremiah Johnston/Grizzly Adams" style of living. He tortures us in the nights with his mourning to be outside; i recently acquired a dog kennel that I set up in the backyard, but that's not enough.
Yesterday, my eldest daughter and her 2year old son came to stay and JC LOVES having a toddler around. In fact, the little boy is so entertaining to watch and laughs hysterically at JC's antics, and they enjoy playing with the teasers - JC finally got exhausted and had to take a nap
And come bedtime, I told the baby that JC won't get into the bed to sleep with him unless he's already asleep, and he climbed into bed and fell fast asleep, no fuss, etc.
So I guess JC's advice is to get a toddler
 

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Mine open cabinets to get treats but I put them in a huge jar so that they can't get them out.
You have smart cats. Are they polydactyl?
 

zane's pal

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Originally Posted by CC12

Mine open cabinets to get treats but I put them in a huge jar so that they can't get them out.
You have smart cats. Are they polydactyl?
Smart cats--any smart animal, really--need a lot of stimulation or they'll seek it out, probably in ways you don't want them to.

I'd say go to Drs Foster & Smith's CATalog and get lots of toys for them and see that they play with them a lot.

And get locks for the refrigerator and cupboards.
 

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I too have a cat who can turn round door knobs and let himself go wherever he pleases. He's never unlocked one but he did accidentally (I think) lock himself in the bathroom once. I had to pick the lock to get him out. I've always thought myself very lucky that he's not that big of an eater. He'd have pulled my kitchen down if he were.

Once, when I had company over, he found and brought me a tampon. The crinkly wrapper and "toy mouse" inside were just too much for him to resist I guess.

I'd try all the child safety gadgets that others have mentioned. Until you can physically stop their movements with regards to food you probably won't be able to change their behaviors. With the socks, I don't know? I have a basket of toys for my kids. Maybe if you put their own toys in something more fun for them to "hunt" in they'd forget the socks. Think a big cardboard box with some holes cut for their paws so they can reach in and smack toys around.
 

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Originally Posted by Enuja

I'm also really surprised that your cats can unlock doors, or even open ones with door knobes. I've looked around You-Tube, and the best I've seen is cats opening doors that have the long skinny horizontal handles, not round ones. I've seen videos that purport to show cats opening doors with round knobes, but none that actually do.
I don't have any suggestions, but I just had to add... Lt. Pants can use a doorknob and open a door. He's walked in on me in the shower or on the potty
He's also opened the closet where we used to keep his food. It's also useless to shut the bedroom door. I don't really mind it; I think he's awfully clever and dextrous... but I wanted you to know that it's certainly possible
My little one is an evil genius.
 
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