Prawn crackers manqué

[desperance]

I have posted before about Barry-the-cat's curious and unfortunate penchant for chewing what it is inappropriate to chew. Hitherto, it's always been hard stuff, metal mostly, that worries me for the sake of his teeth (I've taken to cloaking the bedside radio in a T-shirt, so's he won't try to get at the aerial). As I type, though, he's trying to dig his way into a sealed cardboard box, because he knows - quite rightly - that the books inside are padded about with expanded-polystyrene beads, and he wants to eat them.

Null flavour, null scent, texture of prawn crackers - what can be the attraction? But he's mad for them. And he does eat them, swallowing and all, and that can't be good for him either. Which is why the box is sealed (well, actually turned upside down), but I don't think it's going to defy him long.

Honestly, he is so destructive. It's like living with a puppy: every time I come home, I wonder what new victim is going to be disembowelled across the carpet. Yesterday it was a toilet-roll (dangly thing! kill! slaughter!). Last night, as usual, it was me. He's a vampire-cat, fixated on blood; he spent a happy five minutes trying to get at my wrists, but I was sneakily hiding them inside the sleeves of my bathrobe, so all he was getting was mouthfuls of green towelling. So he refocused, plunged upwards and bit into my jugular.

Next time, I shall bathe in holy water. That'll fox him. (An aside: there's a wonderful moment in the first Chalet School book, where the girls are having their hair washed - a rare experience, and one they loathe - and Grizelda tries to ask in German for hers to be rinsed in hot water, but alas, says holy water instead. This is a great joke, and repeated constantly through all the fifty-nine books to come...)

Comments

Chips away

[mantichore.livejournal.com]

Are you sure they are polystyrene? Because some of these packing chips are actually edible — non toxic, sort of close cousins to pop-corn from what I hear, and, if not really nourishing, fairly harmless. They just melt away in the water, which allows to flush them down the toilet. Maybe the demon cat has tasted some of these and hankers for more?

Or maybe he's just daft, the way a lot of cats are, especially young cats. ^_____^

[durham-rambler.livejournal.com]

Yes, mantichore is right: there exists a variety that you may eat though I prefer to compost them. Sometimes it is actually real popcorn, but librarians don't like it.

Re: Chips away

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Coo. You're absolutely right, Patrick - I tested one, and it dissolved to nothing in water. Thanks for that; I shall stop worrying. I know why he'll be doing it, too; certainly not for flavour. It'll be all part of his ongoing you're-not-feeding-me-enough protest; the poor boy is just always hungry. And, I assert, still putting on weight, even on the minimal diet I give him. Maybe he's got a secret stash of this stuff (Eco-Foam they call it, apparently)? I bet it's fattening...

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Ahh - compost... What a fine idea. I love anything I can put on the compost. Right now I'm actually making more compost than I can use; I think I'm going to have to break up some of the concrete in the back yard and dig down to real soil, just so's I can build up a proper bed to put my compost in. If anybody knows any herbs or veggies that grow happily in permanent shade, pass it along...

Barry's eating habits

[devonellington.livejournal.com]

Yes, my cats are all wild about those horrid little things, too. I have to remove them from the house immediately.

Regarding chewing metal, cords, etc., have you tried bitter apple? Here, I can get a spray at the pet store. I use it on plants, cords, anything I don't want them to chew. They make a little face, back away, and stop.

The biting -- have you tried lotion on your neck? I know, sounds weird, but often the scent and the taste will protect the jugular.

Re: Barry's eating habits

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all of this. I'll check out the pet store, see if they have any kind of a spray that won't make the whole house feel anti-cat to the poor boy (I do want him to feel as welcome as he is: kind of like God visiting his temple, y'know?).

And I do have some lovely smoky spicy lotion I brought back from Taiwan; I shall adopt Oriental practices, and see what that does...

Re: Barry's eating habits

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yes, my cats are all wild about those horrid little things, too. I have to remove them from the house immediately.

D'you suppose they're actually bad for them, in any way? I only ask because Barry has now dug his way into the box and is fishing them out and scattering them about, playing with them utterly and maybe eventually eating them, it's kinda hard to tell; but the thing is, he's having so much fun, I don't want to take them away from him unless they are likely to prove harmful. (Granted he's probably scratching up the books that are in the box during the fishing process - but hey, they're my own books, I can live with that...)