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While on the phone with my grandmother the other week she commented, “your critters sure are giving you a lot of trouble.” It’s true; first it was Chrestomanci, and now it’s Cole.
While Chrestomanci wants to eat everyone else’s food in addition to his own, Cole won’t stop going up on the counter. I know he’s always been interested, and on occasion I would have to chase him off the counter or the tabletop, but recently he’s either started doing it a lot more or been more brazen about it. Now he’s even encouraged Chrestomanci to make the occasional countertop caper.
I honestly don’t know what made Cole suddenly so bold about his kitchen adventures, but now he barely seems to mind whether or not I know he’s up where he’s not supposed to be. He hasn’t started jumping up on counters or stoves when I’m in the room – yet – but he’s just about there. He goes up when I’m in the living room; I know, because I can hear him jump down and sometimes even jump up.
Once in a while I catch him at it, but he’s usually down by the time I rush into the room (or even creep in there). I keep a spray bottle handy but all it seems to do is chase him away. Even when I catch him on the counter and give him a good dowsing it doesn’t seem to work as a permanent deterrence.
I’ve tried a few methods at keeping him off the stove. I’ve gone through tape with the sticky side up, sheets of aluminum foil, and even mouse traps rigged with pieces of milk carton to have a wider range but a harmless snap. None of them worked.
Oh, they’d discourage Cole from stepping directly on top of them. But he’d weave around in the free spots, and he’d only do so when they were present on the stove and counter tops. Nothing permanently chased him away, and I didn’t want to always have one or all of these things all over my kitchen work spaces.
Then last week the worst happened: I came downstairs to find someone had ripped into the sliced bread and taken little bites out of it. First I thought the dog, but no, there was still bread left, which wouldn’t be the case if she was the culprit. Then I thought mice, but the bites were too big for mice. Once Cole started throwing up, I knew for sure who to blame.
I called the vet but they confirmed just to treat the incident like I would have if the dog committed it: don’t feed Cole for a day, then resume regular feedings if he stops vomiting, or bring him in if he doesn’t. Luckily the former happened. To try to prevent this I started feeding the cats three times a day, in hopes that the spread-out meals would sate him.
Unfortunately, they didn’t. I came down yesterday morning to find that he’d gotten into the bread again, though at least not nearly as much as before. I’d stupidly left it out the night before, forgetting in my busyness (Jon is sick with a fever, and I’ve been running around looking after him).
I am at my wit’s end. Despite Chrestomanci not needing a vet visit until the end of March I called today to schedule it early. I know he’s not the main culprit but I just need some face time with a vet to ask for advice.
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