What's safe to leave out when there's a cat?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Later this summer I’m going to move from Renterworld to Ownerworld, and I thought that, since I’ll finally be risking only my own carpets instead of someone else’s, I should get myself a cat.

I have never had a cat, though, and my relatives only have outdoor cats, so I’m not entirely clear on how much “kitty-proofing” is going to be necessary. Would the experienced cat-owners please tender their opinions about having the following things sitting out around the house:

  1. Dried flowers and potpourri
  2. Fresh cut flowers in vases
  3. Yarn
  4. Bits of fabric for quilting
  5. Shelves that are so full of knick-knacks that no sane creature would try to jump onto them
  6. Shelves that are only half filled with knick-knacks
  7. Robes and other pieces of clothing hanging down from hooks
  8. Paper
  9. Miniblind cords
  10. Pens and pencils

More to be added if I think of them.

2

This is totally going to depend on the age and temperament of the cat. Be sure that if you have any houseplants that they are not toxic to cats as cats are programmed to nibble plants (it helps them with hairballs). I’ve found that a spray bottle used appropriately when the cat is young can pretty well condition a kitty from getting up on shelves and such, so those can be made safe. Fresh cut flowers in vases are going to get eaten and then knocked over for Vase Hockey.

3

1. Dried flowers and potpourri

Potpourri should be ok. Dried flowers may be considered toys if they’re within reach - sticks with dangling things on them are fair game. Keep them on mantles or high tables and you might be ok.

2. Fresh cut flowers in vases

Again, keep them high and out of reach. Cats like gnawing on plants - it’s like salad to them. Oh, and don’t even bother trying to grow an avocado or a ti plant indoors. Research indoor plants - some are toxic to kitties.

3. Yarn

Keep any stringlike thing (thread, yarn, Christmas tinsel, shoelaces) far away from cats. Elastics are bad, too. Cats can eat these things and bung up their intestines. In fact, a friend’s cat died exactly that way - she ate one of his shoelaces and he hadn’t realized it.

4. Bits of fabric for quilting

Should be ok. Will likely be laid on top of. Cats like to ‘help’ you with your projects, which often means sitting on top of them.

5. Shelves that are so full of knick-knacks that no sane creature would try to jump onto them
6. Shelves that are only half filled with knick-knacks

Cats are very agile and they know it. They’ll leap onto, into, and in between things you’d never expect. Or they’ll climb.

7. Robes and other pieces of clothing hanging down from hooks

If they’re not moving in the breeze, they’re probably ok.

8. Paper

Some cats are paper rippers. Others ignore paper. We had one cat who’d let us know she was miffed at us by ripping bits off the newspaper and spitting them out. Occasionally she’d tackle a book. She’s the only one I’ve had that did that.

9. Miniblind cords

If they’re blowing in the wind, kitty might notice and play.

10. Pens and pencils

May be chewed on (the non-pointy end).

Watch out for plastic bags with handles. Cats can get their necks in the hole and get stuck. Same goes for collars - cats can manage to get themselves strangled. I

Oh, and cats love love the taste of bleach so you have to keep it away and any rags with it on also.

Your cat may also climb the Christmas tree or swat the ornaments. It might also (more likely when it’s a kitten) try climbing the curtains. My best friend’s cat was found swinging from the curtains trying to bat at Christmas ornaments. :smiley:

They will also scratch the furniture. If you provide a carpeted cat condo, it might use that instead.

They are trainable - you just have to repeat. Don’t hit them - just make a loud noise or speak loudly. My cats were trained to ‘no’ and ‘down’ - usually I’d clap my hands twice to go along with the commands.

If you get a kitten, it will be a rambunctious ball of crazy that can get itself into trouble any number of ways - like an infant, you’ll need to keep an eye on it.

If you can’t stand the idea of cat fur (it’s fine and it travels - no matter how clean you are there will be cat fur on you and your things) and prize your furniture and possessions very highly, well, maybe get an older cat or no cat at all. A friend of mine works at the SPCA and despairs over all the fairly young cats that are turned in all the time. She figures that people decide they’re too much work once they’re not cute fuzzballs anymore :frowning:

I recommend two cats if you’re going to be out a lot - cats are not that independent; they like company and if you won’t be it, another cat will.

4

In addition to the fine post by QG above, I’ll mention that if you get a kitten, you better watch out for speaker/cable/phone wires. A cat whose teeth are fully grown is safer for those.

5

I submit Exhibit A that the best thing you can get a cat is a plastic laundry basket.

6

Or a sink. Or a box. Or a paper bag. Or even a shoebox. One of these days I have to get me signed up on one of those photo sites so I can add relevant links to pics.

7

It does depend a lot on the individual cat’s personality. I have a cat that completely refuses to even consider eating anything that isn’t either cat food or one specific brand of cat treats. My other cat is a voracious eater (who weighs twice as much as the aforementioned cat :slight_smile: ) and will attempt to mouth and chew almost anything he can get his paws on.

I know for sure that my voracious cat would try to eat those things. In fact, he loves trying to eat pens and pencils more than he likes any of the actual toys I’ve bought him.
The voracious cat is very “kitten-like” in personality (in spite of being an adult), and I suspect it would be easier to find a cat that leaves your stuff alone if you consider getting an older, mellow cat. :slight_smile:
Anyway good luck with the kitty-proofing.

8

If your cats are like mine-no to any of the above, unless you like having to clean up kitty vomit on a regular basis. The knickknacks, plants. and paper will be eaten, the fabric will be carried off and drowned in their water dish, and the mini-blind cords will be chewed through and the plastic tip presented to you as a trophy of the kill.

9

I don’t feel like reading all the posts so if its been mentioned already, sorry. I wouldn’t leave plastic shopping bags out where the cat can get to them. Some cats like to chew on them. My cat threw up a plastic hair ball sunday.

10

  1. Dried flowers and potpourri - Depends on the cat, but prolly not.

  2. Fresh cut flowers in vases - These are a favorite of my cats. I use a tall vase and put stuff around it so it can’t be pulled over easily. Sometimes they manage it, though.

  3. Yarn - Only supervised. It can cause problems if they swallow it.

  4. Bits of fabric for quilting - Should be ok.

  5. Shelves that are so full of knick-knacks that no sane creature would try to jump onto them - Depends on the cat. We have one who’s a jumper but it’s not too much of an issue because we’re not real knick-knacky people.

  6. Shelves that are only half filled with knick-knacks - Again, depends on the cat.

  7. Robes and other pieces of clothing hanging down from hooks - Kittens love to climb this stuff. Older cats don’t care much.

  8. Paper - No problem. The only paper they care about is the newspaper or magazine you’re trying to read.

  9. Miniblind cords - cut the loop. They can strangle in them.

  10. Pens and pencils - My cats don’t care about them unless I’m writing with one. The wiggling action looks like a party to them.

11

My cats will sniff everything, and at least attempt to play with most of it. Do not assume that any surface has too many knick-knacks to deter a cat, the more dust-traps you have out on display, the bigger the obstacle course challenge becomes.

Both my current cats have been taught to keep their little noses out of certain things, in return for which they get free run of the house and the opportunity to sleep on my bed at whatever time of day or night they choose. Diving under the duvet and biting my toes is, however, not something I appreciate at 3am from a curious feline.

I don’t have live plants in the house but several times the heads of my artificial sunflowers have been found on the living room floor. But that’s ok, they are easy to re-attach and apparently they don’t taste nice enough for the cats to try eating them.

Don’t leave anything on your kitchen worktops that might look or smell like it could be food. You cat will attempt to jump up and get it, with varying degrees of success. You may lose a few plates that way and end up with a lot of floor-cleaning.

And don’t forget to post pics of the darling scrap!

12

Well, it sounds like getting a cat will mean… changes. I had already been willing to get a young adult cat rather than a kitten, but this pretty much seals it. And my project room (where the yarn will live) will have its door Forever Closed.

Now. My large collection of antique Spode? That’s gonna be the real challenge.

My kitchen-to-be has small knick-knack shelves on either side of the window-over-the-sink. They’re as deep as the cabinets on either side of them, and six inches wide. There are three on either side. Climbing them would be just like climbing a ladder… I wonder if a cat would try.

13

For the last couple of years, my cat has ignored paper, other than to sit on it. A piece of paper in the middle of a carpeted room is likely to become his throne. However, when he was about a year old he ate the middle half of an IRS notice.

To minimize claw damage, I recommend keeping the cats claws clipped. Unfortunately, I can’t do that with my little monster because he was already 7 or 8 months old when I got him. He would not tolerate it and was too big to hold down. However, when I had little kittens (8 or 10 weeks), it was easy to get them used to clipping when they were small so that they gave me no trouble as they got older. Of course, I assume you’ll be keeping your cat indoors.

On the plant nibbling front, I offer this. Monty has shown almost no interest in people food, with two exceptions. Braunschweiger will bring him out of the woodwork, which doesn’t surprise me at all. However, if I make a fresh spinach salad, I must guard it carefully lest he make of with a leaf at a time. One small leaf usually leaves him unchanged, but a couple of large ones is a nearly sure-fire emetic.

14

Potentially dangerous. It’s also possible that the cat will play with the dried flowers and make a mess. Oh, and I’d be careful about what kind of dried flowers I had around.

Some plants are safe, some aren’t. Here’s a list of plants that are poisonous to cats. Now that we have the cats, I don’t bring any plants or cut flowers into the apartment unless I know that they are safe for cats. Here’s a list of safe plants. I think roses are OK, too- this list says they are, and I’ve never had a problem with roses with my cats. Lilies, on the other hand, are particularly dangerous for cats.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if our Luna tried to drink the water out of flower vases. So I wouldn’t put any stuff in the water to preserve the flowers. It’s also likely that she might knock over the vase in trying to drink the water.

If you have potted plants, the cats may use the dirt in the pots as a litter box.

Very dangerous.

Warning: this part is disgusting.

If your cat does eat yarn or string, and you see a bit hanging out of its butt, never, ever pull on it. Yarn or string can literally saw through a cat’s intestines, which can be fatal. Take the cat to the vet if you see yarn or string hanging out of its butt. If you’re lucky, you’ll end up with a live cat and several thousand dollars in vet bills.

May be clawed at and/or knocked down. We have some cat toys hanging from doorknobs in our apartment, because our Katya likes to play with hanging toys. Luna pretty much ignores them, though, so this does depend on the individual cat.

We can never find a pen in our apartment, because the cats always bat them under the furniture.

Put it on a high shelf that isn’t near anything that is attractive to the cats, or (ideally) in a cabinet with a door.

One thing you might want to do to keep cats from getting into high places on their own is to buy them a cat tree. Ours have two,and they’re pretty good about leaving other high places alone.

Keep your toilet lids closed, especially if your cat or cats are attracted to liquids other than the water in their dish.

Don’t leave glasses with liquid or ice in them sitting around unattended. Luna will try to drink out of a glass if she finds one, and if there is ice, she will reach into the glass and try to get the ice out to bat it around. She often spills the glass when she does either of these things.

15

This whole cats-and-string thing… it really makes me wonder what Darwin would have to say. You know?

16

Get out of my kitchen! :slight_smile: I have those too. The cats have never shown any interest in them, despite the fact that the shelves have bird figurines on them.

When my cats were kittens, and before I had a scratching post, they knocked over a lamp and shredded the silk shade. Their favorite place to play was an old leather recliner chair. They’d chase each other up and down the thing and those little claws left lots of little holes.

They were also fascinated with cellophane, so anything wrapped in cellophane was put away. Despite that, they learned how to open the “garage” on the kitchen counter and would regularly tear up a loaf of bread.

Ditto on dangling cords of all kinds, and vases with water, or any container with any kind of liquid.

My cats are old sleepyheads now, and the only thing I have to worry about is food on the counter.

17

I recommend two cats as well- they keep each other entertained while you’re away. I don’t think it makes them less likely to interact with humans- if it does, our two cats would be truly scary-attached to us if either one were an only cat.

If you like candles, never leave a lit candle unattended if you have cats.

My Luna sometimes begs for avocados and onions (both of which are toxic to cats). When she does that, I tell her that she’s refuting both the theory of evolution and Intelligent Design simultaneously. I also try to explain to her what “obligate carnivore” means, and how she’s supposed to be one. She doesn’t seem to care.

Since onions and garlic are particularly toxic to cats, and most things we cook contain at least one of those, we don’t give our cats table scraps. We do give them a little bit of raw beef, turkey, chicken, or fish before we cook it for ourselves, though.

18

We’ve never clipped the claws on our cats. Instead, as kittens we played with them constantly and rubbed their paws every so gently between thumb and index finger. As adults we still do it. They never claw us at all, and very seldom ever anything else other than their clawing posts. We consider this a success, considering when one cat was a kitten his paws were huge. As an adult they are bigger than huge, and the last time I checked his claws, they were anywhere from 3/8 of an inch to a half inch long and razor sharp. He never brings them out unless he is using his claw post or we are playing roughly. Even so he can’t be silent walking across the hardwood floors because he sounds like a very light tap dancer. (Think football player wearing cleats walking on concrete.)

19

Cats are not sane creatures (well, at least none that I’ve ever had were!)

20

The problem with not clipping an indoor cat’s claws is that they can grow inward and into the pads. It’s not nice to them to leave their claws too long and if you get kitty used to the clip routine when it’s still little, it might kick up a little fuss but not a lot. The key is to get really good clippers that cut - too many of them kind of crush the nail rather than cutting it.