<p>We are baby sitting my daughter’s kitty while she is off with Habitat for spring break. Kitty is about 9 months old. Took her a few days to adjust to being here but now she has decided we are worthy of her attention. Unfortunately this attention includes suddenly running up our bodies to land on our shoulders, very startling when you are standing at the kitchen counter making a cup of tea, and somewhat painful. Other than killing her how do we break this habit? If I were aware she was about to do it I could preempt it, but she usually comes from behind then runs off at my screams of pain. (it is something my daughter has had problems with - it was cute when she was a tiny kitten, not so much now).</p>
<p>Egads, my wife had a cat like that when we were living off campus at school eons ago. We had a long Victorian style couch that sat against a stairwall to the upstairs. The cat would hide under the couch, and wait till you got downstairs, then pounce as you emerged, and sink its claws into your thighs. </p>
<p>And then slide down.</p>
<p>Didn’t matter what you were wearing. Nekkid, underwear, shorts, jeans, chainmail. It hurt like hell. I still have the scars. We gave the cat to a neighbor.</p>
<p>I think the cat was possessed.</p>
<p>
Hmm maybe that accounts for the strange noises that emit from this cat.</p>
<p>Fortunately she jumps down rather than sliding so the pain is just from the climb up. She has done it to my daughter ‘nekkid’ getting out of the shower. Note to self - close bathroom door when showering.</p>
<p>swimcatsmom, did your D adopt a twin sister of my cat? She climbs people and emits bizzare noises, too! Getting the cat a very tall cat tree helped somewhat with the people climbing problem.</p>
<p>I have never had a people climber before. Fortunately no service people coming to the house while she is here. (She climbed the cableguy at my daughter’s place, luckily he was a cat lover). The tree is an idea. Maybe her daddy (or kitty’s grand daddy) can build her one. Might have to move the people out to make room for this cat’s stuff though.</p>
<p>I have read that if a cat misbehaves you should immediately lightly bop it on the nose since that’s what a mother cat would do. I’ve done it when our cat bites (rare event) and she gets so embarrased that she doesn’t talk to me for hours. But she also doesn’t bite for a long long time.</p>
<p>Perhaps rig up a device you could wear that will spray water on the cat when she lands on your shoulders? This seems like a good question for the MIT forum.</p>
<p>LOL. I am trying to picture me wearing this device.</p>
<p>Well, I’m of the opinion that technology can be used to solve almost any problem, given enough money, time, and trips to the hardware store. The nose bop solution sounds easy and fast to implement, however, even if low tech.</p>
<p>My cat does the same thing. It was extremely cute when she was very little – she would climb me and ride around perched on my shoulder surveying the world. She learned fairly quickly, however, that no one besides me enjoyed this little game, and she has pretty much stopped doing it to anyone else (@ 11 months old). She doesn’t really do it much to me, either, anymore, since there is a lot more of her than there used to be, and it takes her much more work to stay balanced on my shoulder. (She does do something like it to the dog, but then she gets what she wants out of it – attention and play.)</p>
<p>I would think shrieking and yelling at her, and certainly nose-bops, should eventually do the trick. It seems that she has only been with you a few days – it takes longer than that to train a cat.</p>
<p>The other thing you might consider doing is trimming her nails. I know from experience that, painwise and loss-of-blood-wise, it makes a difference.</p>
<p>May a couple of sprays in the face with water from a spray bottle after she climbs up would convence her it’s not a good idea…unless she ends up liking that game. If the water doesn’t work, adding a little vinegar probably would.</p>
<p>The lesson here is to think long and hard about what is “cute” with a kitty. Basically anything that involves claws on flesh will soon become “not cute” and should be nipped in bud from day one. The most common example is attacking your hand. That may be cute when a kitty is 3 months, but will hurt like heck when a kitty is 9 months.</p>
<p>If screaming in pain doesn’t stop the climbing kitty, try hissing at it. They really don’t like that. Reminds them of mad momma cat.</p>
<p>My daughter used a product called “soft paws” that are soft plastic covers that you glue over the front claws. It worked until the kitten learned not to scratch - and would probably keep one from being able to climb you. Didn’t turn out to be something she wanted to continue once the habit was broken; too time consuming and cat aggravating to hold them still and super-glue the things on.
They stay on for 3 or 4 weeks, and then you glue on new ones. They come in lots of colors - your cat can look like she just had a manicure (which may amuse or appall you, depending…)</p>
<p>Spray bottle with water to spritz the kitty or a squirt gun has been effective with our cats.</p>
<p>My cat (who’s almost 3) just laughs and keeps on coming when he’s in “pounce” or “attack” mode (pupils dilated, tail swishing slowly from side to side) and you spray water on him. Adding vinegar doesn’t help; he laps it up. The only thing that deters him is the noise from a hair dryer pointed in his direction. But it’s kind of inconvenient to carry one of those around all day!</p>
<p>Fortunately, he’s not a climber of people. He does love it when I pick him up and hold him and/or carry him around, just like I did with my son when he was a toddler. But when he wants to do that he asks: he stands up against me with both paws stretched as high as he can reach, and gives me that “pick me up, mommy” look. I never say no!</p>
<p>Softpaws are great for reducing the pain from cat scratches. </p>
<p>You might consider training an alternate activity, like chasing a piece of freeze-dried liver every time he gets near you…</p>
<p>Are you keeping her claws nice and short? If you’re trimming once a week, she shouldn’t be able to climb clothes with so much ease (especially after she grows and gets a little heavier).</p>
<p>We once had a psycho-cat who would run full-out down the long hall, jump up onto the bedroom doorframe about head-height and then let gravity pull her to the ground, clawmarks all the way. She would also lay in wait for D1 to come running down the hall after her bath, flouncy nightgown ruffle kicking around her heels.</p>
<p>I’m thinking this might be another use for the double sided sticky tape! </p>
<p>But actually … the soft paws might work, or help.</p>
<p>My daughter did use the soft paws or a while. I seem to remember a funny story about the cat climbing something then flipping backward because her back paws, without the soft paws, were hooked in and the front paws were not. I will have to ask her next time she calls. As we just have the kitty for 5 more days I am just walking backwards and keeping my eye on her.</p>