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Tag Archives: cat condo

A Nosy, Too-Smart Cat

04 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by SaraS in Cats, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

cat condo, danger cat

So I think Pippin is the world’s nosiest cat.

Lately he has been spending more time in the house. He comes in in the morning and hangs out all day. In the evening he is usually anxious to return to the cat room to eat his canned food. We then lock him up during the night (because of this).

Anyway, if there is a closed door, he thinks he should be allowed to see what’s on the other side. He has become very interested in the basement for some reason. If we leave the door open for a moment (say, to go start some laundry), there is a good chance that he will be on his way down the stairs as you come back up. Or he’s already down there, snooping around the camping gear and exercise equipment.

The basement door

The basement door

So we try to keep the basement door closed, but this door doesn’t latch properly. It shuts very tight, but no latch. Which means that clever Pippin has figured out how to open it. (This is, after all, the cat that has become very good at escaping the backyard. He is sometimes too smart for his own good.)

It is pretty amusing to watch. He sticks his front feet under the door to pull, and pushes his body against the wall until it pops open.

I managed to record this with my phone a few weeks ago. Not the best video but you can see his technique pretty well.

Not So Smart All the Time

All this food in this room is for dogs, you silly cat!

As smart as Pippin may be, he doesn’t always get it right. A few days after he figured out the basement door trick, he came in my office while I was getting something out of the office closet. And he discovered that we have a big box of dog biscuits, as well as the dog food bin, stashed in the closet. Apparently he can’t read the box that says “Dog” since he decided he really wanted to get into that box and sample the biscuits.

I shooed him out and closed the door and went on with whatever I was doing at the time. A little while later, I noticed Pippin attempting the same trick he used on the basement door – pulling on the door while pushing against the wall.

You will never succeed in pulling open the office door!

You will never succeed in pulling open the office door!

The only problem is, as you can probably tell in this picture, this door pushes in. So all his pulling and tugging in the world is never going to make a difference. Plus it does latch securely, which is a good thing or all the dogs would be in there all the time, raiding both the biscuit box and the food bin.

I find it just a little amusing to see him attempt this for a while, then glare at me in frustration as though it is somehow my fault.

Pippin’s Halloween

31 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by SaraS in Backyard, Cats

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

cat condo, danger cat

Several weeks ago, we replaced a section of fence in the back yard. There were two main reasons for this:

the old fence with Pippin perched on top

the old fence with Pippin perched on top

  1. It was a strange, old, ugly fence built out of logs, and it was starting to fall down in spots.
  2. Pippin had started escaping the back yard at night. However he was getting out, he couldn’t get back in, so he’d sit on the front porch and cry (loudly) in the middle of the night till we woke up and let him back in. We suspected he was using the concrete wall we added for the waterfall this past summer to jump the fence (he has no front claws so he couldn’t be climbing out).

Anyway, we replaced the fence with a more normal-looking fence, complete with a custom trellis to make it tall enough (hopefully) keep Pippin in. We finished it up back in mid-October.

new fence from the outside

new fence from the outside

Pippin stayed in the yard for several nights so we thought we solved the problem. We had several cold nights, so on those evenings we locked both cats up in the cat room to keep the heat in, so he didn’t have any opportunity escape for a while.

This past weekend, we finally setup the cat door in the cat room so that they could go outside when they wanted. All was fine for a few nights…

Until this morning (October 31), around 7 am when we heard Pippin crying at the front door again! At least this time he waited till morning instead of yelling in the middle of the night.

Hmm…a black cat with amazing escape artist abilities…and he waited until Halloween to demonstrate that he could still overcome the fence.

So…from now on, that cat is getting locked up at night.

Oh well, it is still a really nice fence and I’m glad that project is done – one less thing to worry about next spring.

panoramic photo from the inside

panoramic view of the fence from the inside

Pippin and the Pool

13 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by SaraS in Cats

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

cat condo, danger cat, Pool

So earlier this evening we were out puttering in the cat condo and visiting with the cats. Pippin got bored with us and left, but Xena continued to enjoy pets and scratches behind her ears. Renee worked on some tasks in the greenhouse, getting things ready for moving the pond plants in for the winter.

The dogs fussed in the backyard, complaining that they are not allowed back in the cat condo.

For some reason, I happened to look up right as Pippin came back to the sliding glass door. Water dripped off his fur into a puddle. He was completely soaked.

That goofy cat went and fell in the pool again! And then managed to get himself back out.

When we looked at the pool deck, there were puddles of water right around the pool ladder we installed this summer. So I’m thinking he was clever enough to use the ladder to climb out of the pool. That is a pretty smart cat!

He didn’t seem too terribly traumatized, but took a long time working at cleaning the water off his fur. By the time we left the cats for the evening, most of his body was dry. We helped out a bit with towel and closed the cat flap to lock him in for the night. The cat is pretty smart, but sometimes he doesn’t have too much sense, and I could easily see him roaming around in the cold all night and getting chilled. I know he is going to be cranky by morning since he is used to having the whole yard for his entertainment at night.

This is at least the second time Pippin has taken a swim since we moved in here. Last October he fell in early in the morning while I was working. I looked out the window to see why the dogs were barking and saw a small black shape swimming rapidly across the pool. I had no idea till then that cats could swim so well. He was at the shallow end when I first saw him; by the time I got outside and on the pool deck, he had gone the full length of the pool and was trying to pull himself out.

It was a cold morning in late October, so I didn’t wait to see if he would be successful. I scooped him out, got a towel, and brought him in the house for the rest of the day to get dry and warm. This is a picture from that day:

Pippin warming up after his swim last October

Pippin warming up after his swim last October

This past summer, we saw some suspicious scratches on the side of the pool in the shallow end. I think he might have fallen in and then scratched up the pool wall with his back claws while climbing out. I’m glad he managed to get out that time since we weren’t around.

Pippin, also known as danger kitty!

pippin_at_fence

Pippin the danger kitty!

 

The Great Cat Room Remodel – Part I

08 Saturday Oct 2011

Posted by SaraS in Cats, Remodeling

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

cat condo

So I named the blog Muddy Poodles, and yet my first really long post here is not going to be about dogs, but rather, the cats. Xena and Pippin.

How Did I End Up with Cats?

I never used to be a cat person. Growing up, we always had dogs. I remember my dad commenting that he didn’t like cats because they “jump up on the stove and lick the butter.” I thought this was a little silly at the time since we didn’t keep the butter out on the stove where it could be licked, but I think he really just didn’t like the independence of cats and the fact that you really can’t train cats.

When I was with my ex-partner Laura, I somehow became the owner of two cats: Pippin and Xena.

Xena as a Kitten

Xena as a Kitten

My dad not currently worried about the butter

My dad not currently worried about the butter

We got Xena back in 1997 when we lived in Oak Brook, Illinois. She is a full siamese. From the time she was a kitten, she often seemed more “dog-like” than cat-like. She wasn’t much into jumping up on things or climbing.

Baby Pippin Looking Innocent

Climbing

Climbing

Pippin came along after we were living in Montana. He is some sort of random domestic short-hair mix. He came from one of Laura’s co-workers when their cat unexpectedly had kittens, so we had no idea who his parents were. He was, unlike his sister, completely cat-like, which was a bit of a surprise to me since I was used to Xena and her non-cat ways. He climbed and jumped. He loved climbing on the little cat-tree we got him. He quickly learned how to jump up on the countertops. I’ve no doubt that he would have happily licked the butter if we had left it out on the stove.

He was also the devil cat from day one. He chewed up my dining room chairs. Once, I came downstairs and found my cell phone with the charger cord dangling out of it like a little, frayed tail. The other end of the charger was still plugged into the wall. Glad he didn’t electrocute himself while chomping through the plugged-in charger.

The damaged chairs

The damaged chairs

I think Pippin was never meant to be an indoor-only cat. He just got too bored being cooped up all the time.

At Renee’s House

Fast forward a few years. Laura and I had broken up, I was now with Renee, and we decided to move in together after about a year. This presented a bit of a problem with the cats. Between the two of us we had (at the time we moved in) five dogs. Three of which were standard poodles. Sirus (the cream poodle) saw cats as prey and chased them whenever she had the chance at my house. So combining households was going to be challenging.

Our solution was to set up the shed in the backyard to be a home for the cats. It wasn’t perfect or ideal, but it mostly worked. We cleared out the various gardening tools and things, moved in a big pet crate with a big fluffy comforter, and tried to make it as comfortable for them as we could.

This solution worked, but had some definite drawbacks. It didn’t have a good solid door, so we tacked up some heavy plastic for the winter and got a small heater for them. This kept the chill out of the room, but significantly jacked up our electric bill. We also got some bales of straw to provide shelter from the cold, but the cats did not really like feeling as though they lived in a barn.

Pippin in the pond area under the pine tree.

Jungle cat on the prowl!

On the other hand, there were several good things about this solution. Pippin loved having full access to the outdoors. Once he got over his initial anxiety about being moved, he started exploring the backyard. We have a tall fence and as far as I know, he has never managed to escape into the greater outdoors. But the backyard has become his personal kingdom.

The squirrel liks to tease the dogs and pippin

The dastardly squirrel

He loves to watch birds in the trees. I don’t think he’ll ever catch one (they have become smart), but he stalks them. It is pretty funny to see him, as he makes an odd little chittering sound when he watches them. He does the same thing with squirrels. He’s as interested in watch the squirrels as the dogs. In fact, I think that may have helped him and the dogs learn to get along since they actually have something in common with each other.

Sirus and Pippin Negotiating a Truce

Sirus and Pippin Negotiating a Truce

Speaking of the dogs, the turn-around has been amazing. We keep an eye on Sirus because she sometimes still regards him as prey. But he is no longer afraid of the dogs. He stands his ground when he is out and just refuses to BE chased anymore. It is great to see him strutting around the yard, even when the dogs are out and about, with no signs of fear. The dogs have learned to respect him and mostly leave him alone.

Cats on the Deck!

Cats on the Deck!

Xena has also adjusted to her new home. She doesn’t enjoy the outdoor access quite as much as her brother, but over the summer she did sometimes come out and lounge on the pool deck in the sun.

Still, we clearly needed to do something to solve the drawbacks mentioned above…

To be continued in The Great Cat Room Remodel: Part II.


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