Well, Famous Pies, getting rid of the cats is not an option. When you take an animal into your house, you are responsible for it for life (its natural life, not however quickly you can contrive to shorten it...). I was merely asking whether anyone knew of the device I had described. Apparently not.

I persist in suggesting a string cover. No hairballs on the soundboard!

Oh, I didn't dismiss your suggestion, Currawong. It was also suggested by someone else, earlier. Still just fixated on my fancy cage, tho.....

Wouldn't a string cover muffle some of the sound?

There are lots of threads about these (I don't have one myself). Here's one .

i certainly wouldn't do anything until it was proved that you had a problem..

i used to gently suggest to my cat that he not get on my 'in the works' paintings. they do obey.

JeanieA, please be careful with those sonic bark collars. My daughter used one on a particularly yappy dog. It seemed to help some, not enough, but the family was enjoying relative calm, when she discovered that the dog's throat beneath the collar had been literally burned raw. (Not from the collar being too tight.) The collar immediately came off, and the dog still yaps.

I like this idea: "Just teach them to play"
I wish I had thought of this earlier w/ my Siamese cat "Jazz", you know like Nora's cat on youtube...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=TZ860P4iTaM

All the best,
~ LadyD

Anni...thanks for the warning. That sounds more like a shock collar burn than a sonic one though. The shock collar gives the animal a static shock when it barks; the sonic only emits this really annoying beep. I couldn't stand the idea of actually hurting one of my babies on purpose, no matter how annoying they can be!

However, the collar usually hangs around the doorknob on the front door; it beeps when either dog barks at the door...two for the price of one!

That made me think of the Simpson's episode where the whole family was given shock collars for therapy - they began shocking each other to the point that there was a power outage in the town.

Before I took up pianos, I was a chemist (well...I guess I still am...). Got an email from a technician colleague not too long ago with a chemistry question. A cat had gotten "hung up" in a fairly new Baldwin grand...with the inevitable terror-induced loss of bodily functions. Eeeeewwwwww!! Sure was glad it was him and not me...green strings, 'goo' all over the soundboard. Call HazMat...

Yikes, JDelmore! That's all I can say about THAT. Love the Simpsons cartoon, whippen boy. I think I've seen that episode.

Having been somewhat involved in dog training for awhile, I've explored the psychology of the bark collars. Those that emit the shock apparently work on some sort of STA/LTA ratio and a lot of dogs figure this out. If it's quiet for awhile and the dog starts barking, he gets a shock. But if he keeps on barking, the LTA goes up enough that the device does not trigger....so he can keep barking with impunity, without consequences. It has amazed me with some of them that they don't just end up giving themselves laryngitis but so far I've never seen that. If they did, the problem would be self-correcting.

1. Place cat in piano
2. Close lid
3. Play Liszt's Crash Bang Boom Sonata Opus 112154 at full volume
4. Cat problem solved


Calm down, just kidding. :p

Kenny -

It might work, but it might also result in the problem described by JDelmore.....not desirable....

Personally I've seen far fewer cats eliminate inappropriately due to sudden stresses than dogs, but....ewwwwwww.....

I have a suggestion: How about cutting some large flattened cardboard cartons to fit over the plate, and then criss-cross the top-side with packing tape sticky-side up. You could also tape a couple of SCoDs onto the cardboard to accentuate the 'yuck' factor of jumping up onto the sticky tape.

If the disincentive is strong enough then you could have relative peace for a while before needing to repeat the negative reinforcement.

Or is your Bengal truly not too bright?

Hi, Digitus. Oh, he is truly a dim bulb, no doubt about that. But the double-sided sticky tape on the cardboard (w/ possible SCoD) just might be the key. Once he develops an aversion to something he seldom gives it a second chance, so it might not occur to him that the tape/can/cardboard could ever NOT be in the piano once he enounters it. Far more effective than any ideas of squirting the cat. Bengals happen to like water, and they are quite likely to climb in to the shower with you, so squirting him is no deterrent, although it works on the other three

If you do try my suggestion please let us know how it went. I'm hoping that it will work with my two 'daughters', who are unfortunately pretty bright. One is a Singapura-like cat, the other is a calico. They know that when daddy's not around that they can do whatever they please.

Apparently lion-poo can be used as an effective deterrent to prevent cats using certain areas for their own toilet arrangements.... works on theory that cats realise that a REALLY big cat lives somewhere thereabouts so they stay well clear.... you can get it from the zoo apparently or from the 'interweb' - might work if you place some 'interesting dung sculptures' under your piano...

Digitus - you seem to have done remarkably well with your two cats if they no longer think they can do whatever they please irrespective of whether you are around or not - that is about as accommodating as cats get I find! I have to give up sitting in 'their' chairs, feed them on time, fuss them but only on demand etc.... all very taxing - it's why I play the piano - to relax hehe

Well, I've had to give up one very comfortable chair in my home office. :p Other than that my two girls are very good natured and not particularly demanding. Even bath time is not a major issue!

Ah. Mine dictate time to get up (between 4 and 430 a.m. on weekdays but no prayer of pushing it much later on the weekend!), and they expect their meals to be served at the regular times, although they will let me get the coffee going first so I don't sleepily mistakenly give them, say, turnips instead of ground bunny. I have finally convinced Mojo that the 'other' end of the piano bench is better to sit on than my lap while I'm playing, but every now and then he feels compelled to get up, walk along the keyboard (slowly, back and forth - I think he likes making the sound) then go sit on top of the piano. Mind you this is still the spinet, so getting INSIDE it isn't a concern and won't be until the grand arrives (which is starting to look like Christmas, she says pessimistically). But my cats - all four of them - will yield a chair if I want to sit in it. Depending on whom I have displaced, I will either get a nose-in-the-air miffed retreat or I will have a cat in the lap, except they know not to try this in a dining chair when I or anyone else sit at the dining table with food in view.

Make a cardboard cutout the same shape as the top of your piano.

Cover it with double-stick tape.

The first time the cat jumps up there will be the last.

When I had a cat a few years ago, I use squeeze bottle to train my cat. He used to jump on dining table often when I eat so I keep a squeeze bottle and spray his face a little bit every time he jumped on the table. If I caught him on the table and he jumped off before I sprayed him, I would put him back on the table and spray him anyhow. After 3-4 days, all I needed was that squeeze bottle on the table and he never got on that dining table again. Tough love is the way to go btw, I tried sticky tape, can with coins etc etc on the table but that did not work for my Siamese.

Maybe someone more clever than I could design and build a miniature, indoor, under-the-carpet version of the outdoor underground electric-fence-and-collar system that some people have for their dogs.

Bird netting? The kind you cover cherry trees with?

I saw someone mentioned "netting" a few posts back, but it was dismissed.

I live near the Carnivore Preservation Trust. They keep their cats in with LOOSE chain link fence--they believe (and have some evidence) that cats do not like to climb wobbly supports. My own experience with cats and screen doors provides some support for this, although I trust their experience with tigers more.

Bird netting isn't too expensive. Suspect that a cat who jumped into it, and then became thoroughly entangled, just might think twice about trying that humiliation a second time. Worst comes to worst, you could cut the cat out of the netting with no major loss, and still have enough netting left to use again. Don't think it would interfere with the sound at all.

Depending on where you live, the agricultural supply or hardware stores may sell a similar product as deer netting. It's a fine plastic 1"x1" mesh, about 7' tall, and maybe 25' long. Cuts with ordinary scissors.

Good luck.