Conference misery::feline_v1

    
    
    Molly used to do the same thing!  Except that with her it was jewelry,
    cosmetics and small things like that.  The big problem was we just
    thought we'd misplaced all this stuff, until we accidentally found
    her stash one day (3 pairs of earrings, necklace, straight pins
    (ouch!) etc.)  Anyway, the bad news is we never did find a cure.
     The good news is she outgrew it at about 2 years old.
    
    Good luck!
    
    Lynn
    

    Can you let him have a shoe of his own for keeps, or does
    he lose interest in them when they're sufficiently holey?
    Maybe you could just leave that shoe in front of the closet door.
    Also, I'm sure they must sell things to keep cabinets
    fastened, so toddlers can't get at poisonous cleaning supplies;
    your toddler just happens to be of the feline persuasion.
    
    Also, maybe you are just a little irritable if your
    baby is due soon?  Maybe these things won't seem so
    important once things settle down a bit.....
    

    P.S. one-year old isn't very far away from the Awful Eights (months),
    which is akin to the human Terrible Twos (years), so I imagine he will
    settle down after awhile of his own accord, if you can hang in there.
    

    They can surprise you, can't they?  I have a three-year-old Silver
    Tabby named Boogie.  Well, Ms. Boogie "discovered" my stuffed loons
    about a month ago, which until then had been minding their own 
    business underneath a table in the living room.  They are a pair
    of fabric stuffed loons, mother and baby (large and small).  One
    afternoon my husband and I returned home and opened the back door
    to find the smaller of the two loons staring at us from the kitchen
    floor, no cats in sight!  This was the beginning of about two weeks
    of "loon madness".  We would come home to find the loon in different
    parts of the house; halfway across the living room, on the stairs,
    on my bed, in the upstairs hallway, and once, smack dab in the 
    middle of the kitchen table!  As always, the perpetrator was no
    where to be found.  It got to the point where we would begin discussing
    on the way home where we thought the loon might be this time.
    Then, one morning I was in the bathroom and heard my husband
    laughing hysterically.  I came out, and there in front of the
    bathroom door was Boogie, holding the loon in the mouth (the small
    loon is still about half the size of Boogie) and looking at me
    going, "EY-OOOO, EY-OOOO" (or however a cat meows whilst holding
    a stuffed loon)!  She was so proud of herself!  After that, the
    loon stayed put for the most part and Boogie has now developed 
    an interest in drinks and ice cubes.
    
    Moral:  it's probably a phase.  Of course, I also lost a t-shirt to
    Niniane when we first got her.  I gave up retrieving the shirt
    from various parts of the house, Niniane kept the shirt.
    
    Suggestion:  give kitty a shoe of her "own".  But make sure when
    you put it out, you specifically warn kitty the same as you would
    with new shoes.  Seems that it isn't as enticing if the risk
    isn't there ;-)
    
    Sorry this is so long,
    
    Mary-Michael, Niniane, Charm, Dream, and Boogie

    I don't know what kind of closet doors you have, but I agree that the
    preventive measures of keeping it shut annd putting child-proof latches
    on your kitchen cabinets are a good idea - especially since the human
    little ones will get to the curious stage eventually.  If you have
    sliding cupboard doors and/or closet doors, may I suggest attractive
    eye and latch hooks from your local hardware store?
    
    I'm sure your kit will outgrow this.  And you might as well let him
    keep the shoes he's already destroyed, at least until he gets bored
    with them.
    
    Carol

	T.K. is the thief in my house.  He steals jewelry and my
	roommates ponytail holders (one in particular).  We keep the 
	jewelry in a box and my roommate keeps her room shut.  He
	also had a fetish for a two inch tall teddy bear which we
	often found in his water bowl.

	Bandit did have one thing he used to steal.... potholders!
	His favorite was a mitt which I eventually gave him since
	it had too many holes to be safe.  He used to carry it around
	and make little crying noises.  

	These situations are amusing in retrospect, and when someone
	else has the problem.  I found the base note very funny!
	But, they can be annoying too, especially when the items
	stolen are damaged and cost more than $1 to replace (ie
	shoes and jewlery).  Try the suggestions of earlier notes
	about giving him his own shoe.

	Good luck,

	Karen

    I won't go into the details of Panther's criminal activities (since
    I only rarely caught him in the act, and even when I did he looked
    so cute, how could I yell at him?), but suffice it to say that during
    Panther's days as a thief (before we moved), I wound up putting
    child proof latches on all cabinets (base and upper) and keeping
    all closet doors shut. Where we live now, there are several closets
    that have those folding doors on them. I wound up attaching hooks
    and eyes between the door and the frame to keep the little darling
    out of there. So now, instead of stealing stuff in the closets,
    I find the bathroom rugs all over the house. 
    
    Deb

    Ya gotta admit, they do look *so* cute, and they
    are *so* proud of what they've accomplished, but
    the day I came home to find Boogie high steppin'
    it around the house with a pair of my underwear,
    I figured I'd better start keeping an eye on
    things :-}
    
    Mary-Michael

    It was either last year or the year before, but the B. Kliban
    catcalendar had a picture of an orange tabby with his front paws
    against the way, being frisked by a police officer.  It was hysterical. 
    The drawing pictured the cat having two pockets that had been turned
    inside out, and there were paper clips, keys, rings, money, and an
    assortment of other things the little kitty had 'pocketed'.  The cat
    was looking back over his shoulder at the cop and the little feline
    bandit didn't look at all pleased!
    
    If anyone would like a copy of it, let me know...
    
    Mary

    I know that you are really having a problem here with Mijo, but
    this note has been the best laugh I have had in a long time!!
    
    The story about Boogie and the loons reminded me that when Momma
    Kitty (RIP) first showed up as a stray, my girlfriend and I called
    her Craven Loon cause of her antics.  Don't know how we came up
    with that name since I have never even seen a Loon, and don't know
    if they are Craven, but the name made us laugh, and your loon story
    brought that wonderful memory of Momma Kitty back for me.
    
    Also, I really loved the 30lbs of Levi's story!!  What a hoot, but
    my guess is that if he weighed 30 pounds, he wouldn't make it very
    far done the pant leg!!
    
    Jo

    Bumpy-tail has a yarn fetish.  If I fail to tie up my skeins of
    yarn securely enough I will come home to find several skeins artfully
    distributed around the diningroom, kitchen, livingroom, hall (upstairs
    and down) stairs, and usually one skein hanging off her collar.
    We never have any questions as to the identity of the perpetrator!
      This fetish also extends to my knitting.  I'm NOT at all pleased
    to discover a month's worth of work pulled and mangled.  It is however,
    hysterical to hear her when she's in the "throws" of knit-fever.
    She patty-paws the knitting and cries and meows as if to say "I
    can't help myself...".  I don't believe that for a second.
    
      :-)
    
      Nancy DC
    
    p.s. Dundee loves to nap in the sorted piles of dirty clothes.

    Oh - and when Dundee was teething  he chewed the ears on my momma
    cat pillow and the two kitten pillows.  I think he wanted them to
    look like he did.....bent ears.
    

Tsunami always liked playing rough with our hands, but when she started
biting, we decided that wasn't acceptable.  We decided on a compromise
and now when she wants to play rough, we put one of Jeff's socks on our
hand.  That is her cue that she can attack(you should see her, her ears
go back and she tries to look fierce...but that's another story).
Well, now she lets us know she wants to play by bringing us one of Jeff's 
socks(never one of mine).  
We find Jeff's socks EVERYWHERE!
We went on vacation for 5 days and returned to find 10 socks in the living
room by the doorway.  I think she was lonely.
She never hurts them though, so I guess I'll let her have her fun.

Becky 

    Thank you all for your ideas.  Unfortunately, my closet doors are
    bi-fold doors and pop open at the slighest pressure from a paw.
    Mijo gets bored with the same shoes.  I've tried that.  Someone suggested
    to me that I go out and purchase a shoe bag that I hang in the
    closet.  I bought it, arranged it, and it works!!!!  I am going
    to have to look for the children locks for the kitchen cabinets.
    That will solve another problem.  Thanks, everyone.  I've really
    enjoyed reading the responses.  Yes, Mijo loves jewelry as well.
    He stole a ring from my sister-in-law that was staying with us
    last summer.  She went home without it.  Two days later we notice
    a shining, glistening thing in Mijo's mouth.  Sure enough, it
    was my sister-in-law's ring.  He hid it until she left.  He wanted
    to keep it!!!  Those darn lovable furry babies.  Maybe it was
    Mijo's way of giving me a gift? I'm going to have to teach him
    manners. 
    
    Now my next step is how my two will take to our baby.  I'm not due 
    until late February.  I hope they won't be extremely jealous. I've
    got a ways to go, yet. However, my husband is taking care of the
    cats' litter box, not me.
    
    
                             Shelly, Selina, & Mijo
    
    P.S.  In reading the notes, why do the cats cry when they have an
          item in their mouth?  Just curious????????
    

    re:15
    
    I have bi-folds also - I put a sliding bolt on them to hold
    them closed and prevent paws from pushing them open!   My
    guys can even open my sliding door closets in my bedroom!
    Talk about furfaces being creative .......

    Well, if they bring jewelry, they can get away with a lot  :-)
    

    We have bi-fold doors on our laundrey room and the queen's like
    to take their kittens there after they are born.  I don't like to
    have to crawl behind the dryer to get them out, so I put a bungie
    cord around the handles of the bi-fold.  It keeps them shut and
    the cats cannot get them open.
    
    Jo

    Since this note has listed helpful suggestions on how to keep things
    closed does anyone know of a device for reguar (straight) sliding
    closet doors.  Amelia (and now Carrie) likes to open the closet
    doors and hide out in there.  Bailey thinks this is terrific cause
    then she has open access to any of my hanging clothes she wants
    to feast on (lets see, today I'll try the blue units vest hem and 
    tomorrow I'll have the purple sweater sleeves).  She literally chews
    holes in them.  So far I've tried blocking the doors with 10 lb.
    weights but I only have enough for 1 closet and I have 4 closets
    (so I chose to block the one with my laundry hamper in it; its a
    good source of nylons and bras for her to munch on).
    
    Anyway, back to the question...is their a device for sliding closet
    doors.  I haven't seen anything on my trecks through the hardware 
    sections of drug stores.
    
    Jan
       

    re: 19
    
    Hi Jan,  I have the same problem with both types of doors - what
    I tried with the sliders is to reverse the doors so that the 
    circles or handles recessed in the door itself, meet in the middle
    and not one to the far right and one to the far left - for some
    unknown reason it works most of the time!  WeeZoo (Alexander) can
    still work his way in - I have taken the closet pole out of one
    of my two double sliding door closets in my bedroom and put shelving
    in from floor to ceiling -  the kids think it's great to sleep on
    all my clean clothes (sweaters, sweatclothes, etc).  
    
    Thanks all I can offer - I hope some one else will have a better
    idea - I sure would like to keep the hairbags off my clean clothes!
    The sliding bolt works pretty well on the bifolds for the washer
    and dryer - the only way they can open that is if they are rolling
    around (two 15 pounders, that is) and smash into it and it opens
    by accident!  sigh
    
    E.T.

    
    Here's another possibility for you.  You could try putting up the
    little latch and hook things that you find in so many bathroom stalls
    in gas stations.  They are easy to find in hardware stores,
    inexpensive, and if put toward the bottom would prevent the furfaces
    from getting in and not be overly obvious.
    
    Faith
    

        If the  sliding  doors  are the way I imagine them, there are a
        couple of possibilities  you  might  be  able to use.  Assuming
        double doors, you need to put something where they overlap, and
        this will stop either from  being  opened - maybe drill a small
        hole high up on the 'inner'  door  and  insert a piece of dowel
        (or a pencil) close to the 'outer'  door,  if  you  see  what I
        mean...
        
        If it's a single door, then a simple  hook  and ring catch from
        the hardware store will do it
        
        Perhaps an electric fence or a pit bull chained to the door? ;*)
        
        Andy
        

    Thanks for the suggestions.  I can't do too many modifications to
    the closets since I'm only renting the place.  The best I've been
    able to come up with that won't damage the doors (and this is after
    alot of heavy thinking) is to get those rubber door jam things that
    you put on the floor to keep a door open and wedge one between the
    double doors of the closet and hopefully they'll put up enough
    resistance so the doors won't open unless you take out the door jam.  
    Course my cats will probably figure out a way around that too.
    
    Now if I can just remember to look for these things next time I'm
    in a drug store or hardware store...I'll let you guys know if they
    work.
                                                         
    Jan

    A little hook and eye arrangement can be removed and spackled over
    if you move out.  No worse than a picture hanger in a wall.