Cat Frustrations

The cat is evil.

A couple of weeks ago, I got up on a Saturday and walked into the living room. The cat meowed at me. As my eyes followed the direction the sound was coming from, my worst fears were realized: the cat was on top of my dining chest (this dining chest) among my wine and beer glasses that had been nudged around to make room for her. As I reached up to get her down, she backed into the glasses, nudging a blue margarita glass off the edge where it crashed and shattered on a champagne bottle below (we put the leftover champagne bottles on the floor between the chest and the wall). I became super angry and grabbed her off of the chest without further injury to any of my glassware. But still...one Margarita glass, an irreplaceable college graduation gift from my best friend, is gone forever. (Too bad the cat is not.)

I couldn't believe that she even got up there in the first place. She had to have jumped up there from the table, and I wouldn't think she'd have the nerve to jump somewhere where there was obviously no room to spare. James and I moved all the glasses close together and at the very edge to discourage her from trying again, but last weekend I found indisputable evidence that she had been up there again as all the glasses were moved from their previous positions. We moved the glasses back and moved the table towards the kitchen (which now makes it impossible for me to go from the kitchen to the living room if James is sitting in his usual seat) and we researched solutions to our problem online. After reading reviews of motion-detection alarms that will sound high-frequency noise or spray a gust of air, we finally decided on the Scat Mat--it's a mat you put on a surface where you don't want your cat, and if the cat (or you) touches it, it gives the cat (or you) a mild electric shock. Supposedly similar to the one you get from touching a doorknob in winter, but we haven't tested it yet.

Yesterday, Sugar dug into a plastic bag with a very small opening to remove a skein of wool I was using to make a sweater, but she fortunately didn't do much harm, other than coating it with white fur and unraveling it a bit. I put the yarn and the bag containing the rest of the yarn in the bedroom, so she couldn't get into it again. Today, she had dug into my project bag to remove a still-in-use ball of the same yarn (still attached to the project) and had unwound some of it. Again, not too much harm, thankfully, but lots of aggravation. I now feel that I can never leave out anything less than a fully zipped up bag (of which I have one oversized purse fitting that description) because it might get destroyed.

So, I'm hoping the Scat Mat will at least keep her away from the table and dining chest, which is by far my biggest worry. And I guess I need to either get a large zippered bag for projects or leave the project locked in the bedroom when I'm not working on it. I know that it's not that big of a deal, but it's just hard for me to accept that I have to go out of my way in my own house to avoid having my stuff ruined. Please feel a little sorry for me :(