Help,the cat likes my layout

[Anonymous]

Assuming that closing a door is not an option and getting a new wife is not on your "To Do" list today, try making the floor under your layout much more attractive to the cat by adding some of Fluffy's favorite toys. I have a large plastic tube formed in a circle with a ping pong ball inside and slots where the cat can bat the ball but is not able to remove it. In the center is a cardboard scratching pad which I keep filled with catnip. We have 4 cats and this trick has kept the top side of my layout cat-free.
Good Luck,
Jeff

[Gluefinger]

I would lock the door (if it has a lock)
If it doesn't, get pointy trees to poke the cat. If that dont work, "Fluffy" or "Muffy" or whatever might have to meet the nose of your layout's finest. Keep your most reliable engine (no cars, to lessen derailment chance) running over the layout the whole day. Cat will stay away after first few days.

[Anonymous]

get a new wife with no cat

[Seamonster]

Since our cat is sitting in my lap at the moment demanding that I mention him in this discussion, I'll add my 2 cents worth. The squirt bottle suggestion works best with him--he runs as soon as you pick it up. But, remember, cats are perverse creatures--they'll keep trying whenever they think they can get away with it, squirt bottle or not. Pepper would work well, as suggested, but too much pepper could damage their delicate noses. A citrus scent wouldn't stop our cat--one of his favorite foods is canned Mandarin orange sections! Dusty says that you should know that while dogs have masters, cats have servants. Happy New Year and meow.....Bob

[Anonymous]

Invest in a squirt bottle.
Iain

[cprted]

I use the mouse trap method for my layout. After setting off the traps, the cat stays away for a couple of weeks untill it has forgotten and decides that my yard looks like a good place to nap.

[Anonymous]

Doug, I agree, it just slows our cats down a wee bit.
It sped me up though, when I stepped on the stuff in sock feet, in the dark.
regards / Mike

[Anonymous]

At least a slow cat is a cat you can catch!
When I was a lot younger, I had pet hamsters...at least I could use them as a loco before the wiring was finished!

John

[douginut]

John,
That doesn't work well.
My cats just "pussyfoot" across the mat and continue. It does slow them up though.

Doug Polhamius

[Anonymous]

Today I read an article about keeping cats out of areas you don't want them in. It said to place a plastic carpet runner upside down (so the carpet grippers are pointing up) near the area off limits to the cat. Cats don't like the way the grippers feel on their paws. Maybe you can use this in front of the door to the layout room.

John

[Anonymous]

This cat needs to associate your layout, with some type of "bad memory", so that it won't want anything to do with the layout, because it's scared of it.
If this cat were to get run over by, say----a big old 464-Hudson, traveling at about 75 miles/hr., for example, or some other terrorist action, the cat will think twice about jumping on your layout, in the future.
It worked for me.

[Anonymous]

We also have 2 cats. When I built the layout I made it to high for them to jump on to. Also be sre to keep any stools, boxes or what ever pushed under the layout. Since your layout is already built I would recommend pepper, apple or lemon scents. Cats hate all 3 of these but it won't harm them. Of course these scents works well for anything you dont want a cat to get in to; not just the layout.

[BR60103]

Ours get up to look out the windows above the layout.
If the cat heads for one spot, try making a place where it can sit comfortably. We had one cat who took over a large flat undeveloped spot and was very disappointed when I cut a river through it.
(The trick to getting the cat to obey is to find out what it wants to do and tell it to do it.)
--David

[Anonymous]

I have a dog that eats the trees and foliage on my layout, so, my solution is to close and lock the door to the layout room. If your layout room doesn't have a door, try putting some extra un-needed trees and/or junky models on the floor around the layout for your cat to "play" with instead.

[Anonymous]

It seems to me that Kitty wants to help you with your model railroading. My suggestion is to get Kitty his or her own model railroad and keep it under your layout.

In all seriousness, I would get some brand of cat repellant and spray it around the door to the layout room. Perhaps both inside the doorway and out.
I must have been lucky. My old cat went on my layout once, and there wasn't anything to interest him, so he left and never got on it after that.

John

[GerFust]

Cats don't like the smell of citrus, like Goo Gone or other products. Perhaps keep something with a small citrus smell on the layout, or on the floor near where they jump up to the layout.

I wonder of they make "fenceless fencing" for cats like they do for dogs?

[dknelson]

Have you tried reasoning with the cat (that is a JOKE kids). Have you tried reasoning with the wife (DITTO).
There is a spray available that is used to keep cats from chewing on house plants (some of which are poisonous to animals and humans) and it has the odor of sour apples. Try that on your trees. The problem with pepper sprays is that WE hate it too!
One technique I read about years ago in MR: set mouse traps around the layout but cover them with a sheet of newspaper. The paper will keep kitty's paws from being hurt by the trap but as the cat roams the layout the traps will make a most satisfactory loud noise that should scare the cat.
I should add that SO FAR my cat has left both my layout and my workbench alone. But he sleeps in a box on an unfinished part of the benchwork and I fear that when the time comes to lay track there he is going to claim prior rights.
Dave Nelson

[csxns]

We have cats and dogs.And i gave my wife and her brother fair warning when we got married if anyone let an animal in the train room and read my lips I WILL KILL IT.Has not happend yet.

[Morpar]

So, it's the wife's cat, huh? Ever take it swimming? With a concrete block tied to it's tail? No? Might be something worth trying. Bound to keep the cat away from the trains after the first time!!

[Anonymous]

I found a good way to keep my cats from eating my trees. I conviently barrowed one of those containers of hot pepper that Pizza Hut has on their tables, put a few pieces of it around a finnished tree, add a dab of green paint to blend it in so you can't see it, but the second time the cat nibbles on it will be the last. Amasing how fast a cat can learn??????? Jamie

[douginut]

1. go with the flow, if you are building in N Scale take an old engine and gut a catnip mouse. cover the old engine with the catnip mouse and stow it in a tunnel or back of the layout. When "fluffy" or "Tom" or whoever takes an interest in your Hallmark brass California Zephyr just blast out of the tunnel with the powered mouse. He will be distracted for a while.
2. run on a wet day, cat will come in and leap up onto the track, the cat not being equipped with DCC will suddenly decide to leave the layout and go elsewhere. ( Blondie did this once, did an amazing impression of a Patriot Missile taking off and has NEVER jumped up onto the layout again.)

[Anonymous]

If there is a door in between your Cat and your Layout I would keep it closed and locked. If not, then it sounds to me like it might be the cat or your Wife. Sorry to be so heartless but thats the way I see it. Can you tell I'm not fond of Cats!!
John

[Anonymous]

This just an idea. Use Sheets to cover your layout
if at all possible. Cat hair is hard to get rid off. If your cat decides to use it as a bathroom,
they will keep on using it, and you won't be able
to get rid of the smell. They make products that
might help keep away. I wouldn't want a animal to
tip over a engine either. Are you able to shut the
door. But is funny to watch them try to play with
a train. When I was little it played with the
Lionel. We had it one a small platform off the
floor. The cat wouldn't get on the platform but
it would slap at the train when it came around.
Good luck with the wife.

[Anonymous]

Just try to make your layout cat-friendly. For example, I now now how much weight a plaster mountain on mine can support because one of my cats used to sit on it.

Sometimes, they will be on your layout making a mess of it; but as long as they are not using it as a litter box, it will be fine.

[Anonymous]

sometimes when I'm away.my cat gets up on my train table and tries to rearrange my scenery and
is also fond of derailing trains.What can I do?
(p.s.)it's my wife's cat.