richl@daemon.UUCP (Rick Lindsley) (04/05/85)
I've recently discovered that over the winter, the neighborhood tabbies
have found a use for my planter that I hadn't thought of. Undoubtedly
the plants will benefit from the wealth of fertilizer now hidden there,
but I need to discourage these cats from this nifty idea, because of
course once there are PLANTS there, digging around becomes a felony
offense.
I'm soliciting ideas on how to convince these cats that their litter
box (yes these cats have OWNERS! -- grrr, but that's another battle) is
a much better place to have their fun. Two ideas I've been given are:
mousetraps covered lightly with cardboard, such that when they snap
they startle but do not catch the offending party, and mothballs
sprinkled liberally around the planter. (I really don't want to hurt
the critters, but of course this feeling will diminish as the planting season
gets closer...) Also, any guess on how long will the winning method need
to be employed before the cats decide it's not worth their time?
Rick Lindsley
...{allegra,decvax,ihnp4}!tektronix!richl