GOODY!!! A cat thread!!! Can't wait to see how this can of worms goes...
(my votes for get rid of it)
Oh boy, here we go again - the cat lovers vs. the layout preservers! Let's see, the last time it was everything from layout covers and door locks to mothballs and cat electrocution systems.
jgotts - A good start would be clicking the search button at the top of the page and search for "cat"; it will give you a lot of the discussions that have happend in the past on this subject. Some you will like, some are funny and some were going to be reported to the ASPCA.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Get a dog!
Teditor
Build it high and get a fat cat. At 58" the cat never bothered the layout. She couldn't jump that high and I didn't leave anything around to help her.
Enjoy
Paul
Donate the cats to a shelter and hope they are readopted for good homes.
Our two were. We told them that these two were inseperatable and either are adopted or put to sleep together. Fortunately the new owners enjoy learning how they team up together and go raiding.
We may or may not have pets again in the future and that train room door is shut always. But with no pets, it is not necessary.
Falls Valley RR wrote: We told them that these two were inseperatable and either are adopted or put to sleep together.
We told them that these two were inseperatable and either are adopted or put to sleep together.
Love em or kill em. We don't care. Just do the same to both!
This sprinkled on the layout for when you not there:
...and this for when you are there;
Works wonders...
Have fun with your trains
They would team up sometimes. If one went into a hunt mode and the other followed suit I knew then we have something intruding into the home.
Wires, widgets and other things are nothing more than a past time to them. Punishment was administered properly and correctly every time.. but still they cannot resist the lure of this wonderful something. Ive had to hiss at them before they would back off.
Now that is scary.
jgotts wrote:If anyone has any suggestions or tips on things they did to "Cat-proof" their layout I'd love to hear them. I've threatened to return the beast to the great outdoors from where he came but that was met w/ less then enthusiastic approval from the rest of the family. He's ripping up all of my trees on my n-scale layout & I'm at my wits end.
Dear Sir,
This amazing offer won't last long.get yours today!!!! A nature predator of many poor vermin.This cat destroyer know no fear,can leap a four foot high fence,run at the speed of sound. And if you act now as a bonus!!! I'll send you a amazing smokeless ashtray!!!!
The one the only....Rowdy the incredible Jack Russel terror...uh I mean jack russel Terrier
I can send you my Jack russel terrier. Rowdy loves to play with cats ! As a matter of fact,send no money today,will ship one JRT free of charge to your residents.
Sorry couldn't help myself...LOL.
Just kidding...all I can tell you is keep the door closed and pray for the best. I had the same problem with my wifes cat "Loki". Had to build a shed to house my trains a problem no more.
Patrick
Beaufort,SC
Dragon River Steel Corp {DRSC}
Fear an Ignorant Man more than a Lion- Turkish proverb
Modeling an ficticious HO scale intergrated Scrap Yard & Steel Mill Melt Shop.
Southland Industrial Railway or S.I.R for short. Enterchanging with Norfolk Southern.
I LIKE cats.
They taste just like chicken........
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Get a big dog. I have one, when we got it, the cat stayed away from the layout.
We havethe dog, but the cat ran off before Hurricane Ivan hit.
Vincent
Wants: 1. high-quality, sound equipped, SD40-2s, C636s, C30-7s, and F-units in BN. As for ones that don't cost an arm and a leg, that's out of the question....
2. An end to the limited-production and other crap that makes models harder to get and more expensive.
Yes the cats consider you property.
Our two were quite dominant but we raised them from kittens to stay off the counters etc. Wherever they would be that is ok with us, they never heard or got hassled. Other areas, punishment was instantly administered.
Eventually they stayed in hassle free areas to do whatever they wanted. And they know the words "NO, OUT and GIT" When those three run out the throwing, beatings or water sprays start.
Once in a while we do something bad and they punish US for it. For example the store was out of regular food and we had to get the cheep.. I mean cheep crap in a box.
They simply sniffed the food, eyed us and took one paw and dumped the dish all over the floor.
And yes we catch em on the counter once or twice. They know durn well better too.
As others have said, the simplest thing to do is close the door on the train room. This works very well and my two cats haven't touched the layout since last year (unfortunately, I haven't either!). The weird thing is they are always trying to get into my room/train room.
Another thing to do is NEVER LET AN OVERWEIGHT CAT ON THE LAYOUT. Last time that happened, I could hear it cracking on one side (because it was only styrofoam sheets). Everytime she jumped off, it was like a 7.5 on the rictor (sp) scale.
Some humourous things to do:
Get a dog
Get a vicious dog
Put barbed wire around the layout
Install security glass
Install water sprinklers (triggered by cat)
I had a cat for 19 1/2 years and never had a problem with the cat/layout. My layout is 48" off the floor. Sometimes when I was working on the layout I would pick the cat up and set him on the layout. He looked around a figured that his food was better than anything I had for him to eat on the layout. He was well fed and probably figured there was nothing worth the effort to jump up on the layout. He was put down last year due to failing health. I like cats, however the wife hates them (I had the cat before the wife.) so no more cats.
My wife does support my model railroad hobby, so I can live without a cat!
JIM
Jim, Modeling the Kansas City Southern Lines in HO scale.
Teditor wrote:Get a dog!Teditor
discussion over!
BlueHillsCPR wrote: Teditor wrote: Get a dog!Teditor discussion over!
Teditor wrote: Get a dog!Teditor
Guys, I hate to be contrary, but get a dog is not a well thought out solution.
Picture a cat occupied train room 3 minutes after the introduction of a dog...
You think a cat does a lot of damage just wandering around in there doing "cat stuff"...
I have two cats. I got Chessie last April, and he's always been really good when it comes to the basement. Granted, the first few times of going down there he tried getting onto the layout from the stairs, but that has subsided, and he'll usually go down, look around on the floor, and then either lay on the stairs and watch the trains or go back upstairs to find a place to sleep. Casey Jones, however, is a little terror in the basement. He hasn't caused much trouble with getting on the layout, but he loves getting into things stored underneath the layout. The last time I allowed them down in the basement was a nightmare. A simple half hour to an hour project that I was working on ended up taking about three since I was constantly having to stop what I was doing to get him out of things. Plus, trying to get them both back upstairs was a chore since I would get one upstairs, find the other, and in the process of carrying him up, the other would come back down. Since then, I've been shutting them out of the basement when I go down there. Granted, they're a little rowdy at first with pawing at the door and even rattling the doorknob, but after a while, they will calm down. Usually when I go back upstairs, they will be fast asleep.
I just wish I could get my Lionel train back up around the perimeter of my living room floor. Chessie had been good with it when I got him, watching it go around and around the living room. Now that I have Casey, I'm not sure how he'd react.
Kevin
http://chatanuga.org/WLMR.html
http://chatanuga.org/RailPage.html
Phoebe Vet wrote: BlueHillsCPR wrote: Teditor wrote: Get a dog!Teditor discussion over! Guys, I hate to be contrary, but get a dog is not a well thought out solution.Picture a cat occupied train room 3 minutes after the introduction of a dog...You think a cat does a lot of damage just wandering around in there doing "cat stuff"...
Yep! Dogs don't work. Cat jumps up on layout and laughs at dog that can't reach it.Squirt guns-Noooo. I've got an outdoor cat that keeps trying to get in the house. Squirt bottles, pitchers of water, garden hose. NONE of them work.
Pepper-nope! Cats aren't really bothered by it. I've pepper sprayed a stray right in the face 6 times now! He keeps coming back. Makes ME choke and gag. Doesn't phase him a bit...
Caught one in a trap and dropped it off about 20 miles away. It was back in 3 days.
We have two cats that we have had since they were about two months old. Both were trained to keep off the kitchen counters and off certain pieces of furnature. Both have been in the layout room and were trained to stay off the layout too. Cats (other animals too) are like kids and need to be trained and diciplined as to what is acceptable and what is not.
The cats would be drawn to anything that moved on the layout but after some diciplinary measures they now just leave the layout alone whether there is a train running or not.
loathar wrote: Falls Valley RR wrote: We told them that these two were inseperatable and either are adopted or put to sleep together. Love em or kill em. We don't care. Just do the same to both!
l:
You mean "cat and cat person"? </snide>
I have a solution. A solution of one of several popular compounds. Mix one with tuna fish, and...
*Poster has received well-deserved bludgeoning by angry cat-people*
Even though I'm always joking about my big Maine Coon caboose thief "Spooky", I don't have a problem with cats and trains (unless I'm working on the kitchen table). The cats are STRICTLY indoor animals, and the MR is in my garage ("California Basement"). The fun only comes when I'm 'tweaking' a locomotive on the kitchen table inside the house (no room for that in the garage). Then I have a considerable furry audience waiting to see if there's some stray part that they can hide from the guy that feeds them twice a day.
And yes, Spooky has been known to run off with a caboose every now and then if I happen to be working on one. No other cars, mind you, just cabeese. Luckily, she picks them up by the cupola, so at least I don't have teeth marks on the side. I used to get really upset at her, but since no damage has ever been done, it's kind of a running joke between us now.
But cats on the layout? They never go out there, so they don't even know what it looks like.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
Dogs have thier own issues
One word to teach a dog:
Sit. (With a period.) spoken in the manner you would a kindergardener but with a tone of absolute certainty that the animal will sit and obey.
Otherwise they wag the tail, wag the dog, slobber all over the place, bang into everything and eat your groceries after they empty that 50 pound bag of ol' roy. Then at the night pant in your face as you try to sleep.
And that train? They take right off after it. They have to chase things....
Personally I like Shepards. They are obediant to command and know thier place.
But cats were easier to maintain and feed/water in exchange for occasional interception of that 8 legged spider as big as the dinner plate late at night.
More serious note, and possibly a good idea anyway, maybe you could try folding coversthat could collapse. also prevents cat drawers (mice etc.) from camping out in tunnels.
^Not feasible on large island layouts
-Morgan