So the wife and I went out tonight over to her moms house to get the mail and the cut the grass while there away. I get home and head down to the layout to straighten up a few things. I go over to the table that sits right beside the layout that has five white plastic storage drawers that hold my rolling stock. As I get closer to it I notice it has brown dirt spots on all over them??? I sit for a moment a think " what the h@ll is this" so I did what I usually do when a problem pops up, I called the wife.
We sit here for a few minutes wondering what this fine spots of dirt are and start to look at it more and realize its paw prints. There on the sides, on the top, everywhere. So I start thinking is it a animal that has got in somehow? Cant be, is it dirt that has fallen off the ceiling above the layout, nope all clean.
So the wife runs her fingers along my track and touches it on the white drawers, BINGO its AIM weathering powders that I used to weather the track ties. So that’s the first problem solved. Now we need to figure out what got it there?? I look at the spare power pack that is sitting on the drawers and I see orange car fur,lol. Now I’m no encyclopedia Brown but I may have solved this case. It seems that my cat is getting on the layout when im not home or sleeping. Its weird because I have noticed orange cat fur on the layout in a few spots lately but never thought anything of it as she never goes near the table beside the layout or on it for that matter. And I used that spare pack earlier today and It didnt have hair on it then,
Seems like the only thing that caught her was the weathering powders, She could have been on it everyday and just avoided the track somehow. I was kind of relived to know that it was just her and not something else, but I guess if another animal was in the house she would be trying to get at it. So now I have just put some boxes and a few loose items to keep her off the table for the time beeing, the layout is too high for her to jump
One of our cats has liked to come in when I was running traibns and watch them go round and round. I expected she was the cause of some derailments while I wasn’t around. The other day I went in and found a disaster. She had laid down, crushed several trees and broken an overhanging roof off my pride and joy of a first real attempt at weathering a building. Needless to say, she is in the doghouse. I got some spray stuff that is suppose to keep her off. I sprayed it at the base of the door and at the only other place she could get in. Haven’t spent much time in there since, so I don’t know if it is going to work or not.
It was fun to watch her watching the trains go by, but now she’ll have to get special permission to go in.
As Sherlock Holmes says so memorably in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sign of the Four
“How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?”
I am just grateful that our old cat, who was already a senior citizen when he got him from the Humane Society, has never shown any interest in jumping on my train tables, workbench, dining room table, kitchen counters, indoor grill, buffet cabinet, coffee table, or my wife’s jewelry bench and artist’s workbenches. He is fully capable of jumping that high and higher, he just knows not to. We will never be this lucky again, I suspect, when it comes to pet cats.
but it’s nothing a bit of glue won’t fix. Obviously I’d prefer it if he didn’t break things, but it happens very rarely and it’s hardly the end of the world.
Our last cat, who is no longer with us, used to jump up on the layout when he was younger. As he got older he realized his limitations in how far he could jump and stopped jumping up on the layout. I think his main reason for getting up on the layout was that part of it was under a window and he liked to sit in the window and look outside. Of course, along the way, he would investigate all the stuff on the layout. His favourite thing was to chew on the utility poles along the streets in the town. I think he thought the poles were kitty toothpicks and the threads were kitty floss. I miss him.
Our weathering instructions tell you to use a stiff brush to apply the powders. Never considered using a cat as the applicator, though they are nice and fluffy, so powder should go on rather well. Just dust the model with kitty…
It captures my ambiguous feelings about cats and layouts. I love 'em both. I think it’s a really good idea to have a door between the two. In my case, it’s the hidden trackage, which seems a lot like a, well, catwalk to a cat. Unfortunately, when a cat and HO scale equipment try to occupy the same space, the cat wins. My hidden trackage is uber-reliable, except when cats interfere.
When I have operating sessions, we leave the door open. The stirring of many unfamiliar feet keeps 'em under control – to this point. I dread the day when they get comfortable enough with visitors they want to hang out under the layout when we’re running trains…[|(]
I actually thought this subject was started as a joke, then realised some of you were serious, you spend hours and hours building a layout and hundreds (some thousands) on equipment and yet let an animal leap on the layout and destroy it, and this is a subject for humor? are dogs and other animals allowed to romp around the layout also? maybe someone can explain this mentality, I can’t understand it.
Well like I said, it’s not the end of the world. Not the end of my world, anyway. Sure I could do without the damage, but I believe I’ll survive it [;)] and I’ll never condemn an animal for damaging something he doesn’t understand.
I’ve got 2 cats, and actually have very little issues with them on the layout. The male, 12+ pounds of fuzzy Maine Coon, is just too lazy, plus he’s 12 years old. The female, a 2 year old DSH, has gotten up on the layout at times, and has nibbled on a few phone poles, and maybe a car or 2 has been derailed… So what, an occasional scolding plus a plant sprayer with water with a slight touch of white vinegar keeps her at bay.
Believe me, the Grandsons can cause more damage in less time than the cats! [:(!]
My first cat Chessie (RIP) was my #1 railfan. He knew not to get on the layout when I let him down to the basement and would usually curl up or stretch out on the steps to watch me and the trains.
Casey Jones (my second cat) never really pays much attention to trains. Smokey (my third cat who I adopted after Chessie passed away 2 years ago) hasn’t been to the basement yet since he likes to get into things, but he’s a bit timid around my Lionel in my office (about 2 1/2 minutes into this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otCkxGEtSPo ).
Some non cat people would flip to see a cat on there prized layout. I have a cat and always said that if I caught her on it Id kick her little butt. But believe me the first time you catch your big fat tabby cat sprawled on the layout it makes you want to laugh so hard, at least me. And the other day when I had seen she was up there ( She has been good as she hasnt been on the layout in over a year now ) the were some telephone poles knocked over and little brown spots on the table where she has waltzed through the AIM powders I had down to weather the ties.
As long as she doesn’t start ripping trees apart or pooping lichen Im fine,lol
