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Its Not A Toy

post #1 of 8
8/20/11 at 2:43am
Thread Starter 
This is the first time Ive come across this problem...

Curtain climbing!

Croc and Tubbs are destroying my curtains. They are not banned from any surfaces with the exception of counters when Im cooking. There are ten tons of high spaces for them to get on and climb and play on yet my curtains are their space of choice.

Slowly this habit is being stopped but Oh My Gosh!!!!! My poor curtains. Sometimes I cant help but laugh yet at the same time its frustrating because Tubbs will get stuck and just hang on them. So far Im down a curtain rod from them pulling my one bedroom curtain down and bending the rod to an unfixable state. Thank heavens I had a spare.

Im thinking about spraying the curtains down with some citrusy smelling stuff to try and deter them. Along with catching and pulling them off the curtains and saying NO! It has gotten alot better but its not completely taken care of yet. My last resort is going to be taping the curtains to the walls so they are flapping around and catching their attention. LOL
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post #2 of 8
8/20/11 at 10:09am
Jamie did that his first year. DH reinforced all the curtain rods, but that naturally didn't help against shredding, so I ended up taking down all the curtains till he was too big/heavy to climb them.
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post #3 of 8
8/20/11 at 5:19pm
I was just about to ask how old your furbabies are...

Crumb never had any interest in the curtains, other than moving them aside to get to his window perch. Harvey, however, is a curtain monster. Not so much the ones in our bedroom, as they don't move very much, but the one covering the entrance to their litter box (a 3 sided closet nook in our living room) and the ones on our french doors to the bedroom are prime targets. If we lock him out at night because he is getting too playful or for *cough* other reasons , we often find him moments later swinging back and forth, staring through the glass panels on the french doors...

Do they seem to prefer some over the others? For Harvey, I think it's the fact he can kind of swing back and forth once attached. Do they have other options for climbing up high, like a cat tower?
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post #4 of 8
8/20/11 at 7:36pm
Oh Gawd! Ramsey lived in the curtains the first year I had him. His favorite napping spot was in my bedroom on top of the curtain rod. And he came to me declawed (front) so I could not figure out how he got up there... but he managed There was shredding (I assume from the rear claws) but nothing real severe like you have.

All I can say is that eventually he grew out of it. Or he got too big and the drapes no longer supported him. Anyway he no longer does it so I attibute age to his ceasing this irritating behavior Best of luck and I'm pretty sure the problem will eventually go away
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post #5 of 8
8/21/11 at 8:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by CrumbAndHarvey View Post
we often find him moments later swinging back and forth, staring through the glass panels on the french doors...
The mental image of this is absolutely hilarious, though I imagine the toll on your curtains is not so funny.

When Mauli was a kitten, she would often do this. We bought a two-tiered kitty condo for her and put it near the window instead and she stopped.
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post #6 of 8
8/21/11 at 12:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jinxywinx View Post
The mental image of this is absolutely hilarious, though I imagine the toll on your curtains is not so funny.
Luckily they're lace curtains... I thought it would be worse, but so far it's less noticeable than the fabric ones since you can't notice all the clawmarks for the decorative holes!
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post #7 of 8
8/22/11 at 3:40am
Thread Starter 
The two that are climbing have just turned 4 mths old. Croc the male seriously was a skater in another life. He will climb the back of my wooden bookshelf and then like it is a skate board ramp do like an olly down the wall. Its hilarious to watch but I swear that cat is a reincarnated dare devil!!! They have gotten smart though. They will look around to see where I am before climbing anything and then when I come running they run and hide under the bed where I cant get to them. LOL

Poor DF is like OMG they are going to destroy the house but I love them soooo much it literally doesnt phase me except Im cheap and refuse to replace the curtains so they better learn to stay off them soon. So far this weekend they werent too bad but Im gonna keep stalking them to make sure they know NO CURTAINS. LOL
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post #8 of 8
8/22/11 at 4:14am
I had to giggle reading this, because it took me back to when Rosie was a kitten climbing my lace curtains She never bothered with the heavy ones, just the lace, so after that l had blinds installed.
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