Phlosphr submits to getting a CAT! The day of reckoning has arrived!

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

Anyone know how to keep a cat out of the bedroom?

This weekend my wife finally hit the homerun in her eyes, she convinced me after 6 years of glee and joy to finally get a cat. She has wanted one for quite some time and finally she did it. Convinced me - the archetypal cat hater - to get a tortie point siamese cat. We went to the breeder picked out our kitten and now have to wait 3 weeks for her to get a little older and for us to make our house as cat proof as I (I mean we) can.

My only stipulation to getting the cat was this: NO SLEEPING ON MY HEAD, IN OUR BED, OR EVER ON OUR PILLOWS.

For those cat lovers out there: This is OK right, I mean I will be able to do this right? Our room is upstairs and the cat can stay downstairs during the night. All we have to do is close the door, right?

My wife is insisting it will be ok but I have the odd sense that she is just saying that to get the cat in doors. Then it’s out with the husband and in with the cat.

I still have my dog Grissholm (Rhodesian Ridgeback) and she’ll be my keeper…I hope.

So I need some opinions.

a) how hard will it be to keep the cat out of our room?
b) what do I do if our dog hates the cat?
c) should we get the cat declawed? (it’s going to be an indoor cat)
d) what kind of food do siamese like? anyone have a siamese?

#2

Dunno what to tell you, I never wanted my cat to sleep away from me.

May I wish you good luck in this (perhaps fruitless) endeavor?

#3

To keep a cat out of your room and off your bed, you have to keep the door closed.

Be warned, though. This makes the room sooooo much more attractive to the cat. It will try to get in.

#4

You hate cats and you got a siamese kitten?

I can’t wait for the threads that come after kitty comes home :slight_smile:

I hope you plan to keep the door closed at all times and can stand the cat pawing at the door/meowing at the door. Oh and I hope you don’t need to leave the room in the night for water/bathroom trips!

I love cats, we have 4, but they are all shelter kitties. They also have full run of the house except for the munchkin’s room at night.

Our dog was a puppy when we got her and we already had cats then. The dog thinks she is a cat. You’re probably going to have to introduce the dog slowly. I suggest letting the dog sniff the kitty through the carrier for a little while. Also the kitten will be spastic and a small fast ball of fluffy energy. Does your dog like to chase? Be wary of small claws embedded in doggie nose! This would not be a good start.

On declawing, We had one declawed when we rented but the others are all still with claws. It is a tough decision… can you see if the cat will be destructive first? (oh and kittens are always semi-destructive but a lot of fun :slight_smile:

That’s all I can think of besides enjoy and good luck. Cats do their own thing and don’t take well to the meddling of humans :slight_smile:

#5

a) how hard will it be to keep the cat out of our room? – very
b) what do I do if our dog hates the cat? – sell the dog
c) should we get the cat declawed? (it’s going to be an indoor cat)
NO! NO! A thousand times, NO!
d) what kind of food do siamese like? anyone have a siamese?
Same kind of food other cats like. Yours. No, seriously, ask your vet.

I’ve had a number of Siamese and they are wonderful, friendly, affectionate and talkative cats.

Introducing kitten & dog: I’ve had good results when adding a new pet with keeping them in separate rooms for several days so they can get used to each other’s scent and presence. Then put one or the other or both on a leash at opposite ends of the same room for a period of time every day, so they get used to sharing space as well. Take it gradually and they will most likely adjust.

Cats can be taught to not scratch on furniture. Get a good, solid scratching post setup for kitty. (They have really good ones at PetSmart.) Praise the cat when it scratches there, assault it with a water pistol when it scratches on furniture.

My husband thought he wasn’t a “cat person” either, until we got our first Siamese kitten.

#6

a) how hard will it be to keep the cat out of our room?

Well unless you keep the door closed 24/7 you can not keep a cat out. If you just don’t want it there at night then just kick it out when you sleep and it will not mind.

b) what do I do if our dog hates the cat?

I’m sure they will get along fine. Maybe not at first but they should get along ok. Heck maybe they will really like each other.

c) should we get the cat declawed? (it’s going to be an indoor cat)

No, just get some things for it to claw and then show it not to claw other things. I just got a cat a couple of weeks ago after not having one for awhile. He took right away to “his” things and I haven’t seen him claw anything else.

d) what kind of food do siamese like? anyone have a siamese?

Probably just like every other cat, what ever you give them. Lately everyone has said Iams so that’s what I’ve been giving mine.

#7

First, congrats. Even kitty-haters find they change their ways after a few days.

a) how hard will it be to keep the cat out of our room?

Not hard if you shut the door. You may have kitty scratching at the door in the morning, and/or finding inventive ways to wake you up (last week my wife caught our cat just about to pour a pint glass of water over my head).

b) what do I do if our dog hates the cat?

Here’s some advice.

c) should we get the cat declawed? (it’s going to be an indoor cat)

NO. Get a scratching post and create a ‘punishment’ regime (e.g. While my cat was a kitten, if she transgressed, I clapped my hands three times, then held her by the scruff of the neck as mommy cats do, until she looked uncomfortable. Now all I have to do is look like I’m about to clap my hands, and she’ll stop doing what she’s doing. After enough repetition, she won’t even attempt to do the thing.)

d) what kind of food do siamese like? anyone have a siamese?

I had a siamese cross. It liked cat food. :wink: Just get prescription diet - cats don’t necessarily go for variety, so something that’s properly balanced that you can save every day will save you money.

#8

One thing with water pistols… we used to do that until the dog decided water from the pistol was the greatest treat known to doggy kind. She will mow down anything in her path for the opportunity to bite the water from a pistol. Not worth the carnage in my house!

#9

On scratching: We have a scratching post that looks like a traffic cone with sisal rope wrapped around it. It’s important to get one that won’t fall over when your kitty scratches. Dust the post with catnip, and put a treat on top of it. Keep baiting it with a treat until the kitty gets the habit of clawing the post.

#10

Hmmm.
So it’s going to be difficult to keep the kitty out of the bedroom. Well, we can keep the door closed at all times I suppose.

See our house is wide open, very airy. We have cathedral ceilings open to the kitchen, dining room, and living room, and one bedroom downstairs. There is a staircase on one side of the big room leading up to our guest bedroom and den, and a staircase on the other side of the big room leading up to the master bedroom and 2nd guest room/first borns room. On one of the walls up stairs there is a trelace leading to the master bedroom, so we can look down on the big central living area. That has no door, but the jump to get to it would be like an 8 foot horizontal jump from the top stair.
Siamese can’t do that can they?

There is no way I’m getting rid of my dog.

#11

I don’t know about an 8 foot leap (our ceilings aren’t that tall!) But our cats can get on top of our 6 foot bookcases… and if kitty has a trellis? to help…

#12

By the way, keeping the bedroom door closed at all times is guaranteed to pique kitty’s curiosity… You’re DOOMED!

#13

Jeez why are cats so damn persistant? If they are renown for being so smart don’t they know where they are not wanted?

#14

Jim - phlosphr will freak out if said kitty finds it’s way into our room at night, onto our bed, and on my head… Freak out ok?!

I just finished reading Steven King’s Dreamcatcher…

#15

ahh, but that’s where you’re mistaken. obviously, Mrs. Phlosphr wants kitty.

my hubby wasn’t a cat person before we married.

he converted.

starts taking bets on how long before the first “aww, isn’t kitty cuuuute” post appears under Phlosphr’s handle.

#16

If there is a way into your room, the cat will find it. Be warned. The only thing that keeps our tortoiseshell kitty, who has a very Siamese attitude, from sleeping on my mom’s husband’s face is his CPAP machine. She used to sleep on him, and he’s slightly allergic to cats!

Be prepared for a very vocal cat. Every Siamese I’ve ever known has been very talkative. I find it to be great fun, myself. I read somewhere that when cats figure out that humans communicate vocally, they start talking to us a lot more than they would to other cats. I think Siamese have this in their genetic codes. :slight_smile:

Cats go where they are not wanted because they KNOW they are not wanted there. You have to learn to submit to the cat. The Egyptians had the right idea when it comes to cats. :smiley:

#17

When my cat was a kitten I would shut her in a spare room at night and when I wasn’t at home to keep an eye on her. She never minded, but that might be because it started when she was a kitten. The spare room was set up to be kitty paradise with lots of toys, comfy sleeping places and a big windowsill. Also, her food and kitty litter always lived there.

I used a spray bottle to keep her off the bed. Nothing upsets a cat more then being woken up by a large spray of water to the head. (Water guns were too whimpy for me. I used a large water bottle with the sprayer attachement.)

#18

You say that now, but after a few weeks, you’ll wake up with a little ball of fur between you and mrs philosphr, and go “aaah”, and give it a tickle under the chin.

It will be then that you realise the door is STILL SHUT! And evil red eyes light up in the dark as the phantasm shape-shifts into its awful demonical reality…

Then you’ll wish you let kitty into your room.

#19

A little recent history…

I grew up with cats. At one point, as a child, I lived with five of the cute buggers, and as an adult I own one really big kitty. I am, as you can probably guess, perfectly acclimated to sharing a bed with cats. Doesn’t bother me a bit – in fact, I’ve always found it rather comforting.

When I started dating the woman who would eventually become my wife, she told me that she always wanted a cat when she was little and really liked them. After a brief period of stand-offishness on the part of the cat, the two seemed to get along wonderfully. In fact, whenever she would come over for a visit, the cat would spend more time cuddling with her than with me.

And then we got married (my wife and I, not the cat and I). For reasons I won’t go into here, both my wife and I had decided to “save ourselves for marriage” and had therefore never shared a bed before getting married. I assumed she knew that cats liked to share the bed with their humans. The thought, however, had never occurred to her, and she completely freaked out the first time the cat jumped up on the bed (right near her head – did I mention that the cat seemed to like her a lot more than me?) And the second time. And the third time.

After a couple of sleepless nights (or so she claimed – personally, I don’t understand how she can live with my snoring but not with a cat’s purring), she said that we either lock the cat out of the room or else she was going to sleep in the second bedroom all by herself. And so, deciding which of the two pussies I wanted to be whipped by, I agreed to lock the cat out.

The cat, of course, was not happy. In fact, he meowed, scratched, and even head butted the door for hours on end. My wife blissfully slept through all of this, but now I couldn’t get any sleep.

Anyway, to make a long story [slightly] shorter, we eventually came up with two solutions/compromises. First of all, I agreed that the cat absolutely, positively could NOT be allowed to spend the night on the bed, and to that end we started shoving him off whenever he tried to come on. At first, he didn’t seem to get the point, but then the wife shoved him so hard he actually hit the wall and I guess he didn’t like that very much. Second of all, we brought his favorite chair up from the living room and placed it in the bedroom. These two things in combination seem to have worked. He knows he is not wanted on the bed, and he has his favorite chair to sleep on while still being in the same room as us.

Short answer – don’t try to keep him out of the bedroom, but train him to stay off the bed and give him some other place in the bedroom where he enjoys sleeping at night.

Barry

#20

I am a very hard sleeper, it takes a lot to wake me up. We sleep with a white noise machine because I find it makes things much more rhythmic and perfect for sleeping. Having a pulsating fuzz ball purring in my face is not the epitomy of a good nights sleep.

What happens if you roll over on it?