Cats and patch cords

[Raymb1]

My wife wants to get a rescue cat. I think my music room would be a playground for a cat with all the patch cords hanging down. My wife says keep the door closed but I know inevitably the cat woud get in there sooner or later. Anyone dealing with cats here?

[GovernorSilver]

Lived with a cat for 6 years. She was moody and demanding, but left the music gear alone. Never tried to lay on top of a synth or anything like what you see in so many photos posted to synth forums

[16251]

That's a wabbit MO.

[Docbop]

Best thing is get a dog instead.

 

For me cats were a major PIA, dogs only once did a dog chew up a cord on some cheap headphones. Dogs when I'd practice they just come lay down beside my chair.

[ShadowMan]

After one of our cats jumped up onto one of my keyboards, I started locking them out of my music room.

 

It was either that or put my gear back in its cases all the time!

[timwat]

+1 on dogs only. Have been a lifelong dog owner, and have never had one damage gear.

 

Have had all sorts of problems with cats, even though I've never owned one.

 

IMHO, the best dealing with a cat involves black bean sauce or hoisin, and even then it's stringy and not enough dark meat.

[ChiefDanG]

Once had a dog chew a breath controller beyond repair.

 

Had my elderly dad living with me for a while. He decided to vacuum the house while I was at work. Sucked up a MIDI cable and destroyed it.

 

Kept the dogâ¦â¦

[ksoper]

Fuzzy assassins with no respect for gravity.

[BenWaB3]

I've had quite a few cats over the years. Never had one damage any equipment.

[The Real MC]

Best thing is get a dog instead.

 

Nope. One occasion I found dog poop on my Leslie preamp pedal. Almost stepped on it.

 

I've owned many pets over the years. Dogs are more of a nuisance than cats.

 

But feral cats can be trouble...

[KuruPrionz]

What you don't want in your studio is hyenas. If you die in there, they will eat your rotting corpse.

 

Cats did use my early 50's Fender TV front Deluxe as a scratching post once. That was decades ago, before they were worth umpty thousands. I paid $15 for it.

 

But, my dogs jumped the fence, knocked over the neighbors garbage cans, pulled all the used Pampers out and licked them clean on the neighbors front lawn.

 

I stepped outside to go to work and discovered this delightful scene. The doggies were glad to see me, and wanted to lick me. I picked up the mess and went to work.

 

Cats are evil but dogs are just plain NASTY!!!!

[allan_evett]

A commercial jingle singer I worked with use to sing, "Cat, the other white meat"... The dogs here concur, so the cats live in the basement. And God help them when they occasionally escape to 'freedom'.

 

I grew up with a couple of fun cats; adorable little clowns actually. Had one that neatly severed the cables on a couple of Roland DP-2s, though she was a kitten at the time. The current cats include a couple of devious little bastards. While they don't bother my downstairs rig, they have been conspiring for years to dispatch us by inducing a fatal fall on the basement stairs.

[Shamanczarek]

I've had cats around most of my life. Only one I had about 30 years ago was a problem with chewing cables. I have two cats now and they show no interest in music gear. I do recommend keeping Keyboard gig bags closed and out of the way when not in use. Some cats seem to think they make a good litter box.

[PianoMan51]

I"ve had cats all my 70 years. Get one. Leave your preconceptions at the door. Just like any other family member there will be aggravating behavior occasionally, but would you rather not have any family?

 

One cat didn"t care about keyboards, but when I sang would come up to mouth, curious. Did my singing sound like pain? Oh hell, maybe.

[Art-0252]

Fuzzy assassins with no respect for gravity.

This might be the best description of cats that I've ever heard in my life. XD

 

I have a cat and he is only allowed in the studio room when I am there to supervise because every now and then he does jump up on a keyboard or synth ( which is cacophonous if it's plugged in). Once or twice he's batted at dangling XLR cables, but never tried to chew through anything.

[Threadslayer]

I had a girlfriend with a cat that was a compulsive cable chewer. Even hot 117VAC cords which you'd think would be a self-regulating affair. Not so! She would gnaw through one conductor, move down a couple of inches and then gnaw through the other. I have no idea how she figured this out, but I found several ruined AC cords and zero fried cats.

[MoodyBluesKeys]

We have had cats for the past 20 years or so, once I was married again and could travel during the day (and sometimes for close to a week). Couldn't keep any pet before because if I can't look out for the pet - no pet. EVERY cat has a different personality, like humans.

Generally, but not always, once they become adult, they calm down a lot. I rescued a tiny kitten last September, she was badly malnourished and parched, probably would have died soon. She was well litter trained already and not afraid of me. My bedroom chair (which I'm in now) was real leather, not much of a problem, but the recline mechanism broke, and I put my wife's older chair in there, which had vinyl covering. A few months later, after using a lot of duct tape on the chair, it was disposed of, and the original put back in with the recline mechanism locked out.

The business made some $ last year, and I bought a real top quality leather chair. It is still partly disassembled and sitting in the spare room at this point. She hasn't scratched the other chair in a few months, and I'll swap them out in August, when she is about a year old.

 

They are worth the effort. OTOH, I don't want dogs period.

 

Don't have a patch panel or anything like that. but providing scratching posts and floor scratchers, and when she was small a "mousie" suspended from a door with elastic gave her a lot of exercise. She outgrew that also.

[gg22]

Cats all the way.

[Konnector]

I've had several cats over the years. I haven't ever encountered a "cable chewer", and never worried about my gear. They couldn't care less.

 

I think one thing to be aware of is: Do you have anything they might use for a scratching post? Like the grille on the front of a guitar amp? Might be a target at some point, but then again it might not. Depends on the cat.

 

All cats are different. You'll never know what kind of personality & behavior quirks it'll have until you live with one.

 

Young cats/kittens can be a handful for awhile. Once they get older, they'll just sleep 20 hours a day.

[EricBarker]

My cat has never shown any interest in cables or gear, or chewing anything really except for plants. The most she does is try to snuggle my gig bags while I"m trying to pack up. I have to be careful not to drop the Crumar Mojo on her when she's in the trolly bag! Cats like canvas, they couldn't care less about rubber cables. Cats naturally don't like to disturb their environment. Usually they only boop stuff around when they want attention. But cats vary WILDLY in personality, just like people.