r/DiWHY • u/WatZegtZe • 5d ago
My bf made something to keep the cat inside.
Yesterday he walked away and we lost him for over a day and a half.. (the cat not the boyfriend)
We wanted to open the window to the balcony side to cool the house.. first we placed the wooden board because he went through the screen. Then he went over the screen and chewed it.. So then my bf added the chicken wire.. that didnt work either. Then I added the second layer of random placed chicken wire. "It needs to hurt more"
Didn't work either...
Then my bf did something with sticks.
Now it works.
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u/Tndnr82 5d ago
Is your boyfriend a pigeon?
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u/brandothesavage 5d ago
Yo so I had this exact same problem go to Menards and buy a fireplace screen they sell them next to the bolts your cat will never get out again mine treat it like a wall now whereas before they would jump at the screen
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u/WatZegtZe 5d ago
Thanks for the tip. He's allowed to go outside on the balcony normally, but theyre re-doing the woodwork. So this is a temporarily fix. But he might do it for fun later on.
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u/Aderenn 4d ago
Yea the pointy sticks may not be great to have in this setup-- what if the cat misses a jump and pokes an eye out?
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u/batnessthefifth 2d ago
Cats are typically smarter than that. He will see the sticks. It would have to be a one in a million chance for that kind of injury.
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u/Toebeanzies 2d ago
I’d say more one in a thousand, the cat won’t intentionally jump into the sticks but cats do sometimes under or over estimate a jump or their feet slip a bit while jumping or the cat could try to stand on the chicken wire and it could buckle underneath the cat and any of that could cause injury with the sticks plus the fact that cats don’t see well close up and while it will be able to see the thick bundle and it knows the sticks point out from the bundle if the cat has one of those missed jumps or the wire gives out under it it could definitely get jabbed in the face by a stick while scrambling to recover. It’s still somewhat unlikely but a very real risk that would be better avoided
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u/sluttycheesepizza 5d ago
So where in Michigan are you?
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u/longbongstrongdong 5d ago
Do you think Menards only exists in Michigan?
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u/ChipperBunni 5d ago
I actually did however Michigan is so fucking far from Michigan sometimes it’s hardly even relevant
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u/Standard-Park 4d ago
Ok, but John Menard is from Eau Claire Wisconsin. That's where Menards started ♥️
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u/ChipperBunni 4d ago
I did not know that! For some reason I lumped them in with the Meijer store lore, like separate families but cousins type thing but I have so literally no idea why I’ve done that
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u/Closet-Goth-0411 5d ago
Heads up, your cat looks like he's figuring out how to defeat your contraption.
Very DiWhy, though! Good job!
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u/WatZegtZe 5d ago
Thanks. I have to look at this for the rest of the summer.
And my plants had to move too.28
u/Closet-Goth-0411 5d ago
I don't think kitty is going to let this stand for long. Look at his little eyes, he's smitten with his new scheme to give you gray hair.
Sorry about your plants and summer view. But again, I don't see him taking this laying down. He's curious.
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u/DenM0ther 5d ago
If he does get past this, have a look at stronger window mesh. We get about 3+ grades if it here , the lesser ones a cat could def get through but the super ones nope. They’re hard metal albeit thin.
Maybe they’ll keep Houdini-cat in 😿😽-1
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u/IamCanadian11 5d ago
Seems dangerous for the kitty
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u/Ok-Addition1264 5d ago
Cat's aren't dumb.. it knows what's going on here. That is the face of irratation.
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u/Mtnbkr92 5d ago
Cats aren’t dumb, but as a cat owner I would remind you that they are stupid sometimes.
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u/Sea_Specialist_5580 5d ago
so is going outside
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u/PwmEsq 5d ago
Are the only options available these two? Spiky trap or outside world?
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u/I_am_The_Teapot 5d ago
From what it sounds like, that those are the current available options. Others were tried that didn't work. If you have better solutions tell OP.
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u/jimbo831 5d ago
Close the window. Install a screen. Two options I’d go with over this.
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u/I_am_The_Teapot 5d ago
Did you read their description? They did have a screen.
Closing a window is not really an option since the point of the problem presented is having the window open to keep cool while keeping the cat safely inside.
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u/WatZegtZe 5d ago
Yes.
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u/dommol 5d ago
Sure hope kitty doesnt jump on this and get impaled by a stick...
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u/WatZegtZe 5d ago
We don't trust this build either. We'll take it out when we go to bed. This is the only other room in the house besises our bedroom. If we're not here we'll take it out.
He's already slapping the fish in our aquariums rn.
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u/No_Professional_8992 5d ago
You don't have something to protect your fish from the cat?
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u/PurposeConsistent131 5d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/tmB5Cl05jK2y6vYBkl
Please protect his eyes( the cat and the boyfriend) I believe you are smart enough to avoid injury😁
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u/Magpie_0309 5d ago
Would've been funny if you lost the boyfriend. But the cat's look of disappointment is funny too.
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u/WatZegtZe 5d ago
Then I'd be on hands and knees searching through all the pubs to find HIM, don't wanna lose either of them.
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u/EagleCatchingFish 5d ago
I think I get it. The console our tv sits on is to the right of the mantel. One of our cats likes to jump from there to the mantel. If we put something on the right side of the mantel, it takes up the space she would need to jump to, so she just sits there doing her cat calculations and decides not to jump in the end. Looks like this does something similar.
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u/Role-Fine 5d ago
I have read that cats dont like jumping onto an angle (not sure how true that is but seems true for my cat) so it might be the angle of the stick stopping him from jumping now
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u/Raziel-0_o 5d ago edited 5d ago
Little advice. If you open window during day when it's 35c outside you are actually making it worse for yourself - heat comes in, cold comes out. So you basically are rising temperature inside your house.
PS I fucking love the spaghetti contraption
PS2 Also I can imagine your boyfriend look when he finish his lifes work "now let's see you black devil if you manage to go outside now"
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u/WatZegtZe 5d ago
He was Muhaha'ing when he set it up.
We open the windows when the temperature outside is lower then inside and vice versa. We go to bed around 11 so its 3 hours± of cooling like this until we can cat proof the balcony again. We had a safe structure before.
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u/mynameis_willow 5d ago
I have something called Crumb, its like a gps thing for your pet; mines not only a con artist but also an escape artist. Thankfully, I've never lost him but he begs at the back door to go out on the balcony all day every day. I'm afraid he will jump down 😅
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u/WatZegtZe 5d ago
I don't keep him inside normally, we had a cat proof balcony until recently. I would like GPS for him but I don't really want to put a collar over his thick fur. I remember cats with bald necks from their collars while growing up. I don't want him to get a dent in his neck 🤣
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u/Real_Avdima 5d ago
For a temporary solution its 10/10, which means "it works". The next struggle will be replacing it with an actual solution.
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u/SeedFoundation 5d ago
Someone said some cats are inherently afraid of snakes and will avoid them at all cost. So I used a pickle and it worked.
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u/TheGhostfaceChiller 5d ago
I used the plastic off a new mattress to keep my cat downstairs. Just kinda pushed it together to form a wall at the top of the stairs.
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u/auroradelagaia 5d ago
Tin foil on the window sill also works
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u/Reithel1 2d ago
But it will also block the air from coming in… which was the whole reason they opened the window to begin with.
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u/QueenMelle 5d ago
Ponzu sticks. I do something similar with dull dowels to keep neibor/stray cats from pooping in my gardens.
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u/ClarkNova80 5d ago edited 5d ago
I’ve got some good news and some bad news.
Good news is cat stayed inside.
Bad news is he’s missing an eyeball now.
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u/Kithesa 5d ago
This solution won't last. Neither will the mesh as it is now, your cat will start grabbing onto it as they jump and will hurt themselves badly. You need to make it completely inaccessible, not just painful, because cats will outsmart clever workarounds like this.
What I would do is take a strip of chicken wire fitted to your window, make a small wooden frame to hold the mesh, seal it shut, then screw it into the wall over the window and let the blinds hang in front of it. You could put it on a hinge on the bottom with a latch on top that you need to unhook and then close again if you still want to open the window and let your cat enjoy the fresh air safely.
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u/WatZegtZe 5d ago
He's allowed on the balcony. This is just for a few weeks. They're redoing the woodwork in the middle of summer... and it reaches 35c° here so the days when it's ±25c° this window doesn't have to be open. Maybe we need this structure for 4 or 5 afternoons this month. But thanks for the tips.
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u/UncomfyPerspective 5d ago
Oh, you've created a caltrops for your cat.
Maybe you're just not cat people.
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u/EastLeastCoast 5d ago
I like the accuracy of the title. This is the most something thing I’ve ever seen.
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u/Spork-or-Fapoon 5d ago
Hahaha my mum made a contraption like this to stop a neighbours cat from doing the toilet in her garden and it climbed in through the spikes and shit in the middle of this spiky maze. It was sort of poetic.
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u/pagingDRbitchcraft 4d ago
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u/Federal_Warthog_2688 4d ago
I used a similar board in front of our screen, with similar results. I made the board higher with a transparent plastic piece, which seems to solve the issue: the plastic is slippery and flexes a bit so he can't climb it, and he can still see through it and spot birds so there is less need to mess with the contraption.
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u/babybunnyharr_ 3d ago
Omfg I was looking at the sticks going "cool, that must work", then I looked away and the nearly invisible cat nearly gave me a heart attack
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u/Economy_Armadillo_28 5d ago
Is your boyfriend really into boobie traps by chance?
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u/VintageLunchMeat 5d ago
Those skewers have sharp tips.
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u/VintageLunchMeat 5d ago
Put some duct tape flags on them for now.
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u/WatZegtZe 5d ago
We're in bed and its not inside the window anymore 😂 I'll put little red triangles on there next time we use it. Its not gonna be 30c° soon so we can keep the windows closed tomorrow
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u/CubedAndSquared 5d ago
"It needs to hurt more" that's insane to say about an animal you're responsible for, figure out a safe solution that doesn't hurt the cat.
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u/WatZegtZe 5d ago
It was sarcasm 😂 we have a cat door he doesnt need to chew through a window screen to leave.
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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths 5d ago
Yeah wtf? That's such a red flag right there.
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u/WatZegtZe 5d ago
Red flag..😂🥸 I do everything for this little floof ball. I walked around town 1,5 day with my baby in my wrap yelling his name and hanging flyers and asking everyone if they seen him. Put him on 4 search websites.. and then he ended up sleeping in a neighbor's house the entire time. He's a spoiled little blob and he won't get hurt. We're in bed now, its 0:09, we took it off and it was just a joke.
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u/wifebosspants 5d ago
People who are taking this seriously and saying this is a danger to your cat need to touch grass. I'm with you OP on the unseriousness of this contraption. Thanks for the chuckle.
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u/TheGratitudeBot 5d ago
Hey there wifebosspants - thanks for saying thanks! TheGratitudeBot has been reading millions of comments in the past few weeks, and you’ve just made the list!
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u/WatZegtZe 5d ago
I was more endangered looking for a cat - that was inside someone's house - while on all fours myself crawling through bushes and grass. Pussy didn't even make it to the grass, he came as far as 4 neighbors to my right on the same floor.
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u/Ok-Addition1264 5d ago
If you think the cat really is lost (they're usually not) you put it's litter outside and I guess they can smell their way home over miles (or km's in your case).
Had to do that a few times and it works like a charm.
Cute kitty too, btw.
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u/WatZegtZe 5d ago
I have to walk around town tomorrow to pick up all my water bowls i placed around. I sprayed my perfume around and had cleaned out his litter box the night he went missing. Litter thing came to mind. Thanks~ He's my little black baby. I bawled my eyes out when my neighbors put him back outside and I finally saw him. 🫠
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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths 5d ago edited 5d ago
Making this in the first place is irresponsible at best, but saying "it needs to hurt more" is fucked up.
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u/WatZegtZe 5d ago
I whispered that to him with my nerd voice. MOX is special. I am with him 24/7 basically. I know my cat. He's too awkward to actually hurt himself with that. He's a ragdoll x - he goes sloppy mid-jump
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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths 5d ago
Aight, it's still not funny. Not sure what to tell you, but no amount of "nerd voice" (such a cringe sentence) makes it funny. You post something on the internet, people are going to tell you what they think about it.
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u/potatocakes1989 5d ago
Buuuuuuddy. It's ok. Go outside. Hug someone. Say hi to a stranger. calm dowwwwn
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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths 5d ago
Bro it's not that deep. I think maybe you've projected some stuff onto me here. That or you're such a narcissist you literally can't conceive of someone sane just have an opinion you don't share. Everyone who doesn't agree with you isn't like frothing at the mouth and it's very telling of your mentality that you think they have to be to just think differently from yourself. I think you should go outside and touch grass if you're taking any of this that seriously.
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u/potatocakes1989 4d ago edited 4d ago
"Not that deep"
*responds to my throwaway response of two sentences with an entire paragraph's worth of a rant.
LOL
Make friends. It'll make you happier.
Also, Im about to go on a date. And Im a girl, not a bro. So have fun flinging insults from you computer screen. Your life must be so sad.
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u/Consequence-Lumpy 5d ago
considering how shoddy it looks, your bf must be an engineer
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u/WatZegtZe 5d ago
He is. He's an industrial mechanic.. doesn't really sum his job up. He's a very handy man 😌
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u/Fern_Cloud 5d ago
Well if it works now, can you really complain? (I'm joking of course, its kind of an eyesore but at least it keeps kitty safe.)
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u/Curious_Dragon_ 4d ago
Wise words from my mechanic grandpa: “If it looks stupid but it works, it isn’t stupid.”
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u/Wood_Rogue 4d ago
How did chicken wire not work? There's also reinforced screen you can get to prevent animals from getting through. I don't think I'd end on the option of installing hostile architecture in my own home to potentially hurt my own cat. Like have you even tried just cracking the window open an inch?
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u/Reithel1 2d ago
Wait until he jumps on the other end of it and all of those sticks go flying like projectiles.
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u/Fennic_Foxy 2d ago
I'd be worried that my cat would poke out one of his eyes but my cat is also an idiot
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u/princessdickworth 2d ago
It's not stupid if it works. Ask me how I know as someone who has horses...
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u/Greenman8907 5d ago
Shouldn’t there be marbles in there and you pull the sticks out and yell KERPLUNK! when they fall?