We’ve had him for about two months. Nice boy, but he’s about as sharp as a sack full of wet mice.
The last few days, he’s been obsessed with pulling the heating/AC vents around our house out of the floor. Fortunately it makes quite a racket when he does this, so we’re able to put a stop to it right away. I think he thinks he’s going to crawl into the ducts, but then realizes he won’t fit. Approximately 10 seconds later, he forgets all about that part and attempts to pull up another register. So now our house looks like this…
I thought of the possibility that he hears something down in the crawlspace, but if that were the case I think our other three cats would be doing this as well, or at least reacting in some way. They aren’t. Thus my conclusion is, Otto is simply dimwitted.
Anyway, any thoughts on how to get him to stop? Or secure the registers so he can’t pull them out? We’re planning to list our home for sale in the next couple of weeks. Do I need to put up signs saying “please excuse the paint cans, rocks, and bowling balls on the vents”?
You could cut a strip of wood long enough to catch on the subfloor (that is, longer than the register opening), then thread a screw into it through the register at some point where the screw head doesn’t fit through the register grill. The exposed screw head would be ugly, especially if you have to add a washer to prevent it from going through the register, but it should prevent the register from being pulled up and would still be easily removable if you ever need to access the vent.
This is what we did when confronted with the same situation, except two cats and larger grates where they would go into one vent and come another. A kitty habitrail.
My only concern with that idea is that the house will soon be up for sale.
If the new owners are anything like me, twice a year they’ll want to pop off all the registers and clean the accessible portion of the ductwork. Our upstairs ducts are in the floors. It’s amazing how much schmutz gets in there.
Caulk, IME, would be harder to pop the tops off of than DS tape or magnets, though you can generally get through caulk in a situation like this one with dental floss or fine wire, by slipping the wire between the floor and the underside of the register’s edge and ‘sawing’ your way through.
I think it shows he’s smart. He understands there’s space down there, and how to access it, and he wants to investigate.
I suggest you board the cat on days you show the house. Or just lock him in a bathroom or something. People don’t want your cat underfoot when they are checking out the house. And you don’t want them to smell recently-used kitty litter, either. You want to be able to demonstrate that the house will smell clean when they take possession.
No reason to put a lot of effort into elegantly cat-proofing the house you are about to sell.
Just put a sheet of white paper beside the vents, one or two feet away. No need to glue or fix it, just leave it there. The cat will calmly sit on top of it and ignore the vents. Cats love to sit on white paper and relax.
Nice cat, btw.
Nah, it’s just curiosity. Cats like to look behind stuff and inside stuff to see if there’s anything yummy there, or something fun to play with. If it’s in their territory, they’ll go back and check on a regular basis, because hey, you never know.
Heat ducts are perfect Mousy Autobahns (I will not admit to how I came into possession of this knowledge) to scamper through the whole house. The cat is trying to do you a kindness.
Just open up the vents and let the cats find their way into the ductwork when you show the house. Although that way, your cat will really be underfoot.
