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
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.[banghead]
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.
l:
You mean “cat and cat person”?
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
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.
Seems aw had a good cure in a squirtgun or larger supersoaker with a little ammonia in it. The minute the cat shows up, a good dousing with the foul-smelling fluid will run it off! Thats why I own a dog!!!
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
Maybe you can teach your cat to sneak through the tunnels and make sure they are unoccupied prior to running the trains.
Just a thought.
Where I have tunnels? not gonna work. Now, turning the sound all the way up on the biggest steamer you have, THAT will clear a tunnel.
SOMETHING NOT TO DO WITH A CAT—APPLY BEN GAY TO YOUR LEGS AT BED TIME!!! About 2 years ago we had a cat, rather nice one at that. It would tolerate us playing with her for about 45 minutes a day and when we were done she was as well. Anyway, I was having some muscle issues with my calf muscles so I decided to load up on the BEN-GAY to try and alleviate the pain a bit. About the time I started dosing off into the world of sleep I feel the cat climbing under the blankets. I figure ok, she is entertainin herself…next thing I know is she had her legs wrapped completely around my one leg and she attempted to eat my leg! She spent the night in the basement. Next night she was sitting on the bed when I applied the BEN-GAY and she started acting like she overdosed on caffeine. Running around the bed (like a dog chasing its tail), jumping at the ceiling fan, attacking the alarm clock, etc… It was at that point I put 2 and 2 together about the cat and BEN-GAY.
I think I still have scars on my legs…
My first cat didn’t bother with the layout much, mainly because he was older, and wouldn’t jump up there. When he was a kitten though, that was another story. He was constantly stealing things from my train room–bits of wire, string, an HO scale Jaguar E-type, etc. But, once I moved, and brought him home…even with the layout room open 24/7, he ignored it.
My new kitty, Snow, only got up on the layout once. She wanted to look out the window, jumped up onto the table. 3 months later, she’s quit doing that.
Yesyesyes, this is a good cat thread just like I said yestrerday - keep them coming!!!
Actually, jgotts, the guy with the cat problem needs to get together with railroadnut675 who has a mouse probem, see "MICE and VERMIN hiding out in tunnels" [:D]
Here is what I’m doing to attempt to keep our 2 cats off the layout. My layout is in the corner of the basement with a good portion of it in the open. I bought some cheap fabric at Wal-Mart and made curtains with it. I think I have five 5’ sections. I made sure they were long enough that material would be laying on the floor and the cats wouldn’t be able to sneak under it. I then bought some velco to attach each section of curtain together and to the walls. This way I can open it up if I want to and it kind of makes a curtain wall or divider if you will. I also used 1/2" PVC pipe and J clamps for the ‘curtain rod’. Also makes it easy to take down for cleaning or to let more light in. I can’t say if it works 100% or not because I just got the velcro tonight so time will tell.
Easiest thing to do - eliminate the cat(s)!
I took time to build a enclosure on our porch with wire and the quality control boss… one of the cats will examine every single inch of my work. Any flaws he found allowed him to break out into the yard.
The time that little jailbreaker and his brother both examine the screen and fastenings. Each and every one. When given sufficient time, they will learn how to get out. Worse, they remember exactly which spot too. If you replaced a section with brand new wire and made sure of no flaws, they will go straight to that spot and bounce off trying to hop out.
Then patiently spend hours examining the situation. And then work together on a bad section. One will apply tension and haul and the other will throw it’s 32 pounds and shove. Eventually that metal got tired and broke.
Now we have house birds that use these holes as access to a nest every year in one corner.
I was very happy for my cats for getting away for doing what they want to do not what we wanted them to stay in.
Unfortunately once inside cats get outside they can never be really happy inside again. They start examining the house for flaws to exploit to get out.
Naaaaa…won’t work. We’ve got a pitbull and a dalmation…the cats allow them the use of their house, if they behave. Attempting to influence the behavior of cats is slightly more futile than trying to trap sand with a chain link fence.