little miss "I have to break everything"...

[mystik spiral]

That is Holland's new nickname. Apparently she has become bored with living in my smallish condo, and with all of her toys (even though I rotate them regularly), and has to find more ways to amuse herself.

Yesterday, for the first time ever, she climbed up my entertainment center and proceeded to knock pictures of my nieces and nephews to the floor. Today, she decided she wanted to explore my wine rack (despite the fact that it's only about 3 feet tall) and nearly knocked off two wine glasses.

I swear, since I got her teeth fixed she has wanted to do NOTHING but play, play, play!! And yes, I do play with her several times a day, but I have things to do too!!!

Little troublemaker...

 

[kailie]

Oh yes, one of the many joys of being owned by cats.

Some of mine are very destructive... We have to try our best to keep things "kitty proof" but that is virtually impossible. They always find SOMETHING to get into. Between Elliott clawing up shoes, to Imhotep tearing up furniture, to Nova chewing through cords (dangerous, I know!), to Cleo II chewing on my purse, etc. etc. It never ends. They're lucky we love them!

 

[carolina]

Originally Posted by Mystik Spiral

That is Holland's new nickname. Apparently she has become bored with living in my smallish condo, and with all of her toys (even though I rotate them regularly), and has to find more ways to amuse herself.

Yesterday, for the first time ever, she climbed up my entertainment center and proceeded to knock pictures of my nieces and nephews to the floor. Today, she decided she wanted to explore my wine rack (despite the fact that it's only about 3 feet tall) and nearly knocked off two wine glasses.

I swear, since I got her teeth fixed she has wanted to do NOTHING but play, play, play!! And yes, I do play with her several times a day, but I have things to do too!!!

Little troublemaker...

Awesome! that is a big sign she is not in pain anymore!

You will probably have to relocate a few things around though...

 

[aussie_dog]

My Buffy's one of those destructive types. She's an attention hog, and when she's feeling bored, she sits on a shelf staring at a human, then notices something right next to her, and after a slight pause, she gives it a nudge and it hits the ground. What makes it amusing, though, is if you call out, "Buffy!

?!" she replies "mew." As in, "what? What'd I do?" "You know exactly what you did, ya little stinker." Then she gives a soft little mumble of a mew, which translates into *muttermuttermutter*. If you keep utting the object back on the shelf next to her, she keeps knocking it off and we just keep doing the same thing. Sometimes she'll knock the object off and immediately "mew!" as in "Didn't do it! Prove it!" She talks back to us and always has a little something to say, especially if we bark out a reprimand to our dog (she punctuates our words with a "mraw!" or "mumf" which definitely means "exactly!" or "yeah, stop that" or "jeez guys, you know he's too stupid to ever actually absorb anything you say, right?")

 

[mystik spiral]

Originally Posted by Carolina

Awesome! that is a big sign she is not in pain anymore!

For sure! I know it is a GREAT sign how playful she has become. I complain, but I complain in jest.

All in all, she is a really good kid. She doesn't chew cords, she doesn't eat things she's not supposed to eat, she's truly not destructive in any way. I am just so amazed at the difference in her since she got her teeth pulled. On the other hand, it makes me realize just HOW much pain she must have been in without me ever knowing it...

Originally Posted by Aussie_Dog

She talks back to us and always has a little something to say

That is something else that has changed since Holland got her teeth fixed. She used to rarely utter a word to me, now she has an opinion on EVERYTHING!!

 

[3catsn1dog]

All my cats like to knock stuff off the counters or kitchen tables. They act like that is THEIR space and heaven forbid us humans put anything on it anymore. I have to keep all my spices and salt and pepper shakers next to the stove where they dont go because Herc likes to knock them off and break them!!!! Fatman also decided it would be fun to knock a coffee cup into the sink and break the handle. Darn it we actually had all 4 coffee cups not chipped or broken!!

 

[otto]

Mazy is a big fan of Gravity Experiments, too. She now has a little bowl (with kitties on it of course) on a book case with her own toys in it, to satisfy this desire.

I put various toys in, not always the same ones, and she loves to fish them out and watch them drop to the ground. The bonus is, the bookshelf backs on the half wall that goes around the stairwell, so if she wants big excitement she can scoop the toy out and push it the other way so it takes a long drop down the stairs.

Oh yeah, and she and Jennie have a Game, sometimes if Jennie sees Mazy poking around in her bowl, Jennie will hurry over and sit underneath. She waits until Mazy drops a toy, then Jennie will chase it across the room, then come back to wait for another!

It wasn't always this way though, Mazy broke some things I really cherished in her early days, before I got smart enough to put things away until she was trained.

I have a friend who used to complain bitterly about her cat and how Tigger (rb) liked to tip over glasses. Everytime we got together, when talk turned to our pets she would moan about this. And I would say, for heaven's sake you know she's going to do it, so stop leaving glasses on the coffee table for her to knock over!

 

[mawilouwl]

I guess I am a lucky meowmy, because my girls rarely break anything. Of course, I learned to pay attention to where I leave my stuff when they were younger, so that helps! Tania will sometimes knock things down of the kitchen table (espcecially if she sees a pen there!), but as far as gravity goes, she prefers a lot more when I let the faucets of the bath just slightly on so that only a drop at the time fall at the bottom of the bath. She can watch them and attack them for so long when I do that!

Zoe does destroy a bit my furniture, but what is scarier is that she also eats it if I don't watch her. She has gotten better though, I think she is finally understanding that it scares me and that she shouldn't do it! She also loves to spill water everywhere from her water bowl. It's huge and it doesn't move, but she still manages to empty it a few times a day. Poor hardwood floors...
One good point was said though, as destructive as they can be, isn't it wonderful to know our cats are healthy enough to have fun in life?!

 

[mystik spiral]

Originally Posted by otto

Mazy is a big fan of Gravity Experiments, too. She now has a little bowl (with kitties on it of course) on a book case with her own toys in it, to satisfy this desire.

That is a good idea! My entertainment center is about 6 feet tall and has several compartments, well - here it is:

Here is Holland exploring:

I could easily clear out one of those top "cubbies" and make it hers. There really isn't anything breakable up there outside of the picture frames (and I only buy cheap picture frames

). I love my cat, but I refuse to put the pictures of my nieces and nephews away just so she can't break a frame!!

 

[taryn]

They are like human kids, it's a good thing they're cute or you'd kill them.

I have said that both about my 7 year old son, who is a typical 7 year old boy and Nuts who seems to love making trouble. Pens are big around here for gravity experiments but anything he can move can be fair game. He loves to get on the counter(and he knows he isn't allowed up there) and knock things around if we don't tell him to get down(and actually move like we're going to stand up, telling him isn't enough, hard head) fast enough.

Attitude is pretty good, she doesn't hop on the counters but she is the same way with pens, if she can knock one off she will. She will also dump a water bowl so I just use only their water fountain which she can't dump and she loves to throw her wet food on the ground before eating it. I think all cats are that way with pens, I know

Spaz

and

Maude

were. I still don't know why they love to knock pens off of things.

Trust me I might 'complain' about it and call them sh**heads, and sometimes call them s-head1 and s-head 2(or thing 1 and thing 2) but it's all in jest. Spaz responded to 'little b*tch' just as much as her name. We said it in a joking manner. With Nuts and Attitude having leukemia I relish that they play like that because it lets me know that they are healthy and happy and I know that could change in an instant and I don't know how long I will have them, even though that is true for any animal, none come with a guarantee on how long they will live, I could get a new 'healthy' kitten and it get hit by a car or get sick and die or just die of whatever. I just know there is a higher likelihood of them having a reduced lifetime or they could live a long happy life and die of old age, you never know.

I mean human kids break things and can cause trouble as well with their 'gravity experiments' so really cat-proofing and child-proofing isn't that much different. If your place is child-proofed it's pretty much cat-proofed.

Taryn

 

[mystik spiral]

Holland loves to knock pens off the table too. And I had to remove any potpourri I used to keep in the house - she never ate it, but I would find the pieces laying all over the place.

You are right when you say it's a good thing they're cute... My siblings say the same thing about their human kids.

 

[otto]

Pens are popular here too, Mazy cat again.

OH please do clear off that top corner (where she is in the pic) for Holland to have her own spot! She'll love it, and sooo deserves it the dear girl.

 

[mystik spiral]

Originally Posted by otto

OH please do clear off that top corner (where she is in the pic) for Holland to have her own spot! She'll love it, and sooo deserves it the dear girl.

Done and done.

She is currently performing her own gravity experiments with the toys that I put in her "cubbie" for her...

 

[otto]

Originally Posted by Mystik Spiral

Done and done.

She is currently performing her own gravity experiments with the toys that I put in her "cubbie" for her...

YAY! So....where's the pic?

 

[mystik spiral]

Originally Posted by otto

YAY! So....where's the pic?

She was too quick for me... I got the camera out, she looked at me, and promptly jumped back down to the ground.

I swear she is convinced that my camera is the devil. Whenever she is doing something cute and I try to take a pic she stops WHATEVER she is doing and just looks at me, all annoyed like.

 

[otto]

Mine do that too. they find it very annoying when all they want to do is play, and all Mommie wants to do is take pictures of them playing.

 

[mystik spiral]

Holland in her new "cubbie" (after she has performed gravity experiments on most of the toys I put up there):

Holland on the very very top of the entertainment center (giving mommy a heart attack!!!):

And, just because I like to show off my cute little baby, Holland sleeping on the blanket I put at my door to keep my heat in:

 

[otto]

Yay, thanks for the pics! I love seeing Holland, she's so sleek and plush looking. Gorgeous girl!

 

[mawilouwl]

Aww, look at her on the blanket!

She is smiling!

Holland is a beautiful cat.

 

[mystik spiral]

Thanks guys! In case you couldn't tell, I love my little girl to bits and pieces...