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Northern California Babies
HATE our cat (vent and questions inside)
I.am.livid.
So, we know that Gray Cat (yes, that's his name) has gotten himself into the pack n play before. We've seen cat fur in there before. I've even caught him jumping in there (when Tay WASN'T in there). He has definitely been scolded for this.
Well, today, I'm at the laptop, 10 feet away from Taylor napping in her PNP...I hear a noise coming from the PNP. Well, Gray Cat was in there WITH Taylor! He was just sitting by her feet, and she was still asleep.
He couldn't have been in there for more than a couple of minutes, because I was just there. I am SOOOOOO ANGRY! I scolded him, resisted kicking him out of the house and put him in the garage. I can't even look at him.
What do we do? How do we make sure he doesn't ever go in there again?
It also brings up another question. How do you manage all the cat fur? Its everywhere. all.the.time! We can only vacuum so much!
This is what we freaks me out...When Tay starts crawling, she's going to have cat fur on her hands...and inevitably, in her mouth. I'm totally afraid of her choking on cat fur.
Anyone have any advice?
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Re: HATE our cat (vent and questions inside)
I grew up in a cat house and had no problems choking on his fur. He was an outdoor cat but I remember really having problems with him...peeing on my stuff, scratching me, etc.
What about a tent for the PnP?
Do they make tents? I'm digging for an old sheet right now, lol
I didn't have problems with cats either growing up....definitely remember scratches...now another thing i'm worried about with T! lol.
Motherhood has brought out the paranoia in me!
I too grew up in a cat home and I dont remember the fur being a chokeing problem.
As far as cat behavior modification I think a squirt bottle is a great cat trainer. They hate it. (Usually) You will feel empowered and no need to banish the kitty.
As far as the fur brushing them really cuts down on the shedding. I also have this trimmer thing that helps slow it down. For my dog myshea who is the king of fur balls. We occasionally pay a groomer to brush/ trim and shampoo him with anti shed stuff. These things do slow it down but I still vacume almost every day.
Some things I would like to try is the new roomba for pet owners and maybe just an expensive vacume cleaner.
ok 1st - stop scolding the cat the minute it's out of the PnP - otherwise he will think he's in trouble for doing what he was told to do. Praise outside of the PnP and scolding in and he'll figure out quickly how to get love.
Also - is there time when he and the baby have a chance to just sit and sniff/explore each other? With you there and running interference. Your cat is curious, your baby is curious, and the more you facilitate interaction, the better they'll be around each other.
I had a cat sleep in my crib with me. It was never a problem.
As for the hair - I have two cats that shed like crazy. I use a brush and a lint roller on them. They are in love with both. I also have the handheld dyson and every day or so I just suck up the floaty furballs - we have hardwoods, though, so they tends to collect like tumbleweed.
NorCalMOMS bio* NorCalBOTB* babywearingBIO
Harmony Doula
Riley was 4 days old when Issabella (our cat) decided she wanted to sleep in the bassinet with him. There was no room so she slept on his feet. I nearly killed he when I found her there. It took me weeks to trust her in the same room as us when he was sleeping. I am telling you this because I want you to know I get how freaked out it can make you. The following are all things we did to get that behavior to STOP.
When Riley wasn't asleep we put tin foil in his crib/bassinet. It didn't take long for her to stop going into it. We did have one relapse a few months ago. I caught her sleeping in his crib with him again. Did the tin foil thing for less than a week and she hasn't done it since.
Hair: We have two cats, cat hair is a part of life in our house. I have just accepted this. However I do vacuum daily/nightly so that the floor in the living room is clean. We don't always do the best job but at least it keeps it somewhat clean. Plus the amount of hair he picks up from the floor is small compared to the amount he can get in his hands by grabbing them and pulling. He has yet to have a hair ball even after kissing them and stuffing hair in his mouth.
The transition to having a baby is not just hard for you, it is hard for the pets too. Keep this in mind and show them love and affection when they do good things, it will help.
Thx for listening guys! We vacuum a few times a week so I think we're going to step that up.
What's weird is that there doesn't seem to be any animosity from the cats towards T. I'm thinking that GrayCat associates the PNP with lots of attention as T naps in there, so he wants attention too? That's another weird thing, we give both kitties lots of attnetion. When T goes to sleep we each have a kitty on our lap! LOL.
I'll try the tin foil thing again, it didn't work well, but we weren't too diligent.
Yeah, I scolded him when he was in the pNP/as I took him out, but knowing cats' short term memory, I didn't do anything after. He did have the spray bottle sprayed at him. Itsnot really effective for him, he ignores it.
I'm glad to hear that choking or anything wasn't an issue for anynoe. I just don't want either cat to sleep where she sleeps. It just makes me nervous.
Kitty - I feel the way I think you felt when you first discovered your cat in the bassinet. I cannot even look Gray Cat in the eye. I just went in the garage to finish up my laundry. He looked at me trying to be cute, but I just couldn't look at him. I love our kitties more than anything, but GC is on my sh!t list for a little while.
Big hugs - my much loved cats have been knocked down a step since we had M and have made me angry for similar things as well. I don't have too much advice on the cat in the PNP - we always make sure the cats are out of M's room and close the door when he is sleeping. We tried the tin foil thing before he was born and the one cat young and thin enough to jump in his bed couldn't care less that there was tin foil in there - just pushed it aside and went to sleep.
Regarding the fur everywhere, we have two cats and it just is. I vacuum the floors and the couches once a week and do touch-ups with lint brushes on the couches in between. I'm not going to drive myself crazy over it and didn't even when M was in the crawling stage. Yes, he got cat fur on his hands and yes, he put his hands in his mouth. It is gross, but I don't think it is a choking hazard. Unfortunately, they will put their hands in far worse things (crawling on floors that people walk on with shoes is absolutely disgusting to me, but you can't avoid that either). They will also eat disgusting things like sand at the playground and dirt. I'm a total neat-freak and germ-a-phobe, but having a crawler made me relax about it or I would have needed some serious therapy. Try to think of it as them building their immune system. Did you know that kids who grew up with pets are less likely to have allergies? You can give Gray Cat a little pat for that one.
We currently have foil all around the edges and inside our PnP but we have yet to start using it with Lucas. I'm probably going to start soon so I'll need to move it at that point. But up until now it's prevented our cat from jumping in there.
We do have foil along the edges of our crib and that's the only way we can prevent our cat from jumping into the crib. I haven't yet seen her jump in the crib when he's in there but she LOVES to sleep in there when he isn't. The foil really keeps her away. It works great just having it on the border because that's where she'd jump. Maybe try that on the PnP?
She also used to jump in the bassinet all of the time but once he was sleeping in there she didn't used to. I'm hoping that's the same with the crib (when we eventually remove the foil) but who knows. Right now I'm just trying to prevent her from sleeping in there when he's not in there to prevent the cat fur.
I hear that if you put tin foil on the PnP mattress it will freak the cat out when it jumps in and wont do it again. (obviously dont do this when baby is in there) Its worth a try. Or, you can get one of those tent things that PP mentioned.
We have a long hair cat but she is super fat so I know she wont be able to jump in the crib or PnP. As far as the hair...we just got a ROOMBA and programmed it to vacuum 3x per week. Our floors and carpets are really hair free now. Its great especially because I dont have to do the work.
My cats don't respond to water spray, either. In fact, they have been known to get INTO the bath with me.
They also think tinfoil is for eating. And the double sided sticky stuff that's supposed to stop them from clawing furniture? That gets eaten as well.
I think as long as you keep doing what you're doing, they'll learn.