Cats and Phonographs?

[Victor78]

A while back, on another board, there was a topic on cats and phonographs. There was some very good suggestions made by many posters, and I'll be darned if I can remember any of them. And, of course, I didnt save any either. Last Friday I had to put my buddy Klinger down for health reasons. We are looking into another of course, but would like some ideas from you about what you did/do to keep them away, or off the machines. Maybe a stack of Alma Gluck records? Thanks in advanced to all who reply.

Jim

[Amberola 1-A]

For my lidded machines, I keep them closed when not playing them. The first cat we had jumped up into a Brunswick with an Ultona head and "found" the steel needle stylus for 78s. Needless (Needleless) to say, he never went up there (or any other machine) again! You can buy a spray at a pet store that has cat phermones in it and it keeps them away from what you spray it on. It's not cheap, however.

[Zeppy]

I have a cat that likes to sit on furniture, but he isn't the same jumper he was a few years ago, so last time he tried to jump up, he gouged the lid with his claws. I've taken to leaving stacks of record binders stacked onto (with enough records to prevent him from kicking it off). I haven't had much luck with chemical sprays that they disapate quickly, stink, and since i'm not oging to spray it directly on the machine itself, spraying around it never seems to work.

I've considered tying lead weights to his ankles, but I've been told that might be considered animal cruelty.

[bostonmike1]

sorry for your loss my friend------i know first hand what a pet's impact can have. my border collie,Looflirpa,(does anyone recognise his name?)goes absolutely INSANE whenever i play an Edison(or any variety)cylinder and barks worse than an Army drill sargent. the vet said it must produce a negative feeling in his ears---- i just think they are both nuts!the only differnce is,one drinks from my toilet bowl and the other one drains my wallet. i hate it when my vet visits my house,the bowl is always a quart low. your friend michael

[phonogfp]

Aprilfool!

George P.

[Amberola 1-A]

Aprilfool!

George P.

George, you been sniffing that lacquer again?

[EdisonSquirrel]

In the good old summertime, remember to bring your phonograph outdoors and listen to your favorite tunes under a mighty oak! And let the come by and dance on your machine. We're not nasty like cats!

[MordEth]

A while back, on another board, there was a topic on cats and phonographs. There was some very good suggestions made by many posters, and I'll be darned if I can remember any of them.

Jim,

Sadly, it was not cached by Google, and the last I had heard, despite ProBoards promising to give John all of the posted information from that site, this has yet to happen.

Otherwise I could easily restore the posts here (and have been considering doing this with other useful threads that have lost to everywhere other than Google’s cache).

Last Friday I had to put my buddy Klinger down for health reasons.

My condolences on the loss of Klinger—hopefully you enjoyed many good years together.

We are looking into another of course, but would like some ideas from you about what you did/do to keep them away, or off the machines.

As was mentioned previously, I think that perhaps the most important (and easiest) part of the solution is to close the lid on any machine that has a lid. You might also place some type of cloth over the horn to prevent this sort of thing:

(Image borrowed from one of John’s posts elsewhere.)

I’ve heard positive things about the spray to keep pets away from things, although I’m not sure if you’d want to spray this directly on any of your machines—perhaps just on the ground near them.

And you could try a cloth on top of the internal horn machines (e.g. a small tablecloth, cloth place-mats, etc.) to instill a fear of sliding in your cat when they go to jump up on a machine.

If you’re lucky, your cat will only be interested in checking out the machine and listening to it, but not in jumping on it:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71XLpZloTAU[/youtube]

Hope this helps.

— MordEth

[AZ*]

This is a good topic. I keep some of my nicest machines in the living room, and to keep the cat away from them, I placed an invisible beam device connected to a loud siren at the entrance to the room. It's mounted at cat level, so I just have to remember to step over the beam.

It's worked well for at least 12 years. It only took a couple of incursions for the kitty to get the message. She now never breaks the beam and sets off the alarm unless she's in hot pursuit of a bug.

[Victor78]

Thank you guys for the tips and the condolences. It has been a tuff couple of days around here, and I have not been able to look at a machine yet. Surprisingly, Klinger liked to listen to records. I thought it was weird the first time I noticed, he came and sat on the back of the lounge chair when I was spinning some shellac, and he did it again and again, so that was kinda cool. He was around for almost 3 years. He's now my avatar.

I had always thought of printing the old post to a pdf file for future reference, but we all know how that go's. I did read on a cat forum today, someone was asking about how to keep a cat from peeing on the same spot. Someone else had suggested, getting an old office mat, the flexible plastic ones, and cut them into squares and turn them upside down, so the little prickly things are up because a cat wont walk on those. This may not help the jumping part of it, but it may keep them away from the sides and scratching. All of my machines either have a small table top machine on it, or these doily's on them. I do have some record albums that are not any good, maybe put those on top for a little insurance. Good ideas though!

One other that I had heard of, came from a post about Christmas trees - cats supposedly hate the smell of citrus and was suggested to put pieces of orange peel towards the bottom of the tree to keep them away.

BostonMike1 - thank you and cool name