Honey, did you forget to pay the cable bill?

I guess not....

Gorgeous cat!

And a frightfully clever one! He'd actually managed to unscrew the connectors and pop the cabling out of the box. 

It's a daily battle, keeping him away from cables. No matter how we tuck them away, he finds methods of pulling them out.

Aww,  this was hilarious @Losna.  He looks too cute to be mischievous!

I guess you will have to buy those 'split loom wire covers' and tuck everything away, if you really need internet access.     

Here is my husband's captioning.  

Oh My Heavens!!  I thought I liked the first caption, but I LOVE this caption!!  You just made my day, ...but I still have work to do, so I have to check out your other photos, later.   

cat nap said:

 
Oh My Heavens!!  I thought I liked the first caption, but I LOVE this caption!! 

You just made my day, ...but I still have work to do, so I have to check out your other photos, later. 

 

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Hehehehehe. My hubby always has better witty lines than I do. 

The funny part is he actually did  break into the pantry after I posted that, while we were out grocery shopping! He'd gotten the door open and had knocked all the tea boxes out of the lowest shelf and made himself a nest and was napping.  

I tried to take a picture, but that section of the kitchen is too dark and the camera wouldn't take the shot.

Losna said:

 
And a frightfully clever one! He'd actually managed to unscrew the connectors and pop the cabling out of the box. 

It's a daily battle, keeping him away from cables. No matter how we tuck them away, he finds methods of pulling them out.

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    Something tells me this kitty does NOT want you wasting time on TCS when you have him to pamper....   poor guy having to raid the food cupboards in search of his food too.       

I am now wondering if he has been watching Cravendale milk adverts, learned how to use his thumbs, and undo child-locks? 

@MServant   

It's actually funny you should say that because i often joke that he's well on his way to developing opposable thumbs. He has really big feet, and he's really  good at spreading out his toes and manipulating them. He actually can open child locks! I've seen him do it - he spreads out his toes, and feels around the locks (or whatever he's trying to open). When he finds an area that's different - the latch - he then focuses in on it and pokes it until he finds the direction it moves.

It's amazing.

He is really frighteningly intelligent - there are even times when I'm willing to swear that he understands English. My husband did manage to teach him that my name is 'mama.'   

@Losna   I love the sound of this guy.      Have you ever tried clicker training any of your cats?   Mouse is too impatient and pounces before you can get anywhere near teaching him but your cat sounds ideal!     There are a few threads about it here on TCS and some very good videos showing you how to do it on YouTube.  It might help to direct your cat's attentions where you want them rather than his investigating things when you're not looking.    

I know I keep my eyes on Newman.  We have handles on our outside doors instead of knobs and I've seen him stretching to his utmost to operate it with his big ol paws.  One of these days-----------------

keyes said:

 
I know I keep my eyes on Newman.  We have handles on our outside doors instead of knobs and I've seen him stretching to his utmost to operate it with his big ol paws.  One of these days-----------------

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Oh yes, I know that feeling.  I'm lucky and all door handles are round here so no chance of Mouse paws working them, but I am certain he's figured out the bolt for the bathroom door because when ever he gets shut in there with me (basically if he doesn't leave before I get too desperate and have to shut the door) he will be stretched up and paws trying to push the bolt back over.  Thankfully there is also a round door handle so he isn't going to expose me to my house mates as long as I remember to check the handle has been turned.  

@MServant   I've pondered it now and again. We haven't needed it though, he learns pretty quickly. He can even associate things hours apart. For example - he loves  to 'hug' me. He wraps all 4 arms around me and clings tight as he love nibbles and grooms my hand. The problem is, his claws mean this hurts me quite a bit. So we bought a claw trimmer and I asked the shelter to teach me how to trim claws. Oh how he hated that. Not even treats would mollify him. He sulked all day. But then that evening I got tired of his sulking and forced a cuddle on him. He couldn't help instinctively hugging me - and he realized immediately that it was his trimmed claws that were the reason I wasn't being hurt. His expression was so adorable, I wish I'd had the camera. He was so excited, he wouldn't let go of me for quite a while.   hughughughughughug!!!

And he hasn't objected to a claw trim since.

With the exception of cables, all it takes is telling him no once or twice and he learns that h's not allowed to do something. Praises work for teaching to do something. My favorite example for this is his cat post. When we adopted him, his back legs were weak, and he couldn't jump or climb. He loved that post because we gave it to him, but he didn't know what to do with it; he just slept curled around its base. Then he saw Tempest playing on hers. She clawed it, then climbed up. He watched. Oh, how intently he watched. Then he ran down to his and tried scratching it. This was so awesome for us because at the time he also didn't know how to scratch and we'd been worrying about how to teach him that he needed to scratch his claws.

We praised him. So he tried the other thing she had done - climbing. But his legs were so weak it was quite a while before he was able to get to the top. We just praised him as he learned, slowly raising the height of his climb that he had to reach before we'd praise. The reason I find this so funny is because now he can climb to the top. It's obvious that he has no idea why he gets praises for climbing it, he just knows that when he climbs the post, daddy tells him he's a good boy and pets him. Now my husband just says 'Are you going to climb your post?' and Sinbad will zoom over and climb. It's so funny.

He taught him my name was mama in a similar way. One day Sinbad walked up to me, sat at my feet, looked up at me and meowed the sound 'mama.'  My husband thought this was so funny, he lavished praise on Sinbad. It didn't take long before Sinbad realized 'mama' is praised when it's directed at me. So now he says it at me when he wants my attention, and when he's worried about me and wants my husband to come see me, he'll paw at my hubby saying mamamamamamamama until my hubby goes to where I am.

And for Tempest... she's a tough case and requires a lot of special attention so we haven't wanted to push her too much until she's more comfortable. Although, maybe we could try clicker training to get her to interact with Sinbad? Do you think that's something that might work? She desperately wants to come out of her safe room, and she's been making slow progress, but it's clear that she's still very afraid of Sinbad.

@keyes  There's a resident cat at our vet who can open doors. I positively gaped the first time I saw it. He reached right up, stretched out his paws, jumped, and used his weight and movement to pop the handle and open the door. He even pushed it closed behind him after he went through. Just .... amazing.

@Losna   Your idea of clicker training, gradual praised steps with rewards to suit Tempest is definitely worth a go as a build on for the regular introductions.  I have seen in other threads how hard it is for her and a really gradual approach with positive associations to help her move forward could help her.   It would be very interesting to hear whether you have any success or not so if you do try this I'd love to see a thread on it.     

I figure Mouse understands quite a lot of what I say to him, and what he is or is not meant to do, but he just goes ahead anyway and gives me this real cute slanted look of his while he does it. 

MServant said:

 
I figure Mouse understands quite a lot of what I say to him, and what he is or is not meant to do, but he just goes ahead anyway and gives me this real cute slanted look of his while he does it. 

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Oh man, Sinbad does something very similar when I'm late for playtime. Though he'll actually meow  to make sure I see him misbehaving!! 

I should have said that he's teachable about everything but cables and Tempest. I will be updating the integration thread about them with sad post in a bit. 

Losna said:

 
I should have said that he's teachable about everything but cables and Tempest. I will be updating the integration thread about them with sad post in a bit. 

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Oh, no.  @Losna.  I am really worried here.  I hope it has nothing to do with Sinbad biting down on a cable and getting hurt or shocked.

Or that Sinbad and Tempest got hurt. 

@cat nap   I posted in my introduction woes thread. Sorry to take so long - while writing it I dropped my headphones and the crash sound caused both of them to panic. I spent a couple of hours calming them down.