Keeping cats off the layout


GPwrangler

Active Member
I'm sure a few of y'all here have a cat or two that you need to keep off the layout. What's your method? My ladyfriend decided we needed one of those destructive little balls of fur and energy, so now I need to find a way to keep it off the table.
 
From experience, I know that cats DESTROY layouts. My father had a great layout he worked on for years, and one cat destroyed basically everything. The scenery, mountains, and tunnels are destroyed. I doubt if he'll ever rebuild it.
 
I always had a problem with my neighbor's cats snooping around in my backyard and I can't leave my garage door open unsupervised cause they'll wreak havoc in there. Since I have a gravel yard, I'd just huck rocks at them and they'd run off. One found out I have no aim, so the rocks stopped scaring him off. Super, right?

When I gave up on rocks, I looked into different remedies and found out cats hate Cayenne pepper. So I put cayenne pepper all over my wall and yard and even on parts of my vehicles. Now, the only time I see cats is after it rains, but I have a huge canister of cayenne pepper and can re-apply anytime!

You may find creative ways to spread some cayenne pepper in your layout room. You can also get the powder and mix it with water in a spray bottle. No .22 caliber needed. Just "pepper" them with some water if they set paw in the layout room.
 
If the cat is in the house, leave the door open so it will wonder outside. If the cat is outside, close the door.
 
Our cats know to stay out of the train room, it wasn't hard to train them.
I keep the door closed when I'm not in there. If your layout is in a separate room a friend has a screen door to keep the 1/1 critters out of his.
Another thing you can do is get something called a screamer, kind of a motion sensor that keeps cats from jumping up on kitchen counters etc.
 
I'm sure a few of y'all here have a cat or two that you need to keep off the layout. What's your method? My ladyfriend decided we needed one of those destructive little balls of fur and energy, so now I need to find a way to keep it off the table.
Shock collar?
 
well she already ate most of the telephone poles and trees, but this setup seems to be working for now. I'm thinking maybe some plexiglass hinged to the side of the table for a more permanent solution that looks a little better.
0213140745-03.jpg

and the culprit
0213140745-00.jpg
 
Two birds with one stone, clean your track with Goo Gone! Cats in general hate the citrus smell. I had a small piece of paper towel with some Goo Gone on it. Cat came over and sniffed it, thought it was going to throw up and fall over dead from the reaction!
 
I always had a problem with my neighbor's cats snooping around in my backyard and I can't leave my garage door open unsupervised cause they'll wreak havoc in there. Since I have a gravel yard, I'd just huck rocks at them and they'd run off. One found out I have no aim, so the rocks stopped scaring him off. Super, right?

When I gave up on rocks, I looked into different remedies and found out cats hate Cayenne pepper. So I put cayenne pepper all over my wall and yard and even on parts of my vehicles. Now, the only time I see cats is after it rains, but I have a huge canister of cayenne pepper and can re-apply anytime!

You may find creative ways to spread some cayenne pepper in your layout room. You can also get the powder and mix it with water in a spray bottle. No .22 caliber needed. Just "pepper" them with some water if they set paw in the layout room.

MAINE-COON.jpgMAINE-COON.jpg

I think he was about 6 months old when I took this photo.



Get a Maine-Coon cat. Since I got mine other cats, squirrels, crows and other critters no longer show up on the property once he grew up.

He was on my layout one time. As soon as I kicked the power on and all the DCC locos started up he won't even go in the room any more. Some tough guys have at least one weakness.
 
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Trade the cat in for a dog. Got three dogs and no layout problems at all. Like the .22, but a shot gun will work too.
 
Guys, I've been a MRR and owned cats most of my life. Cat gets on layout, squirt 'em with a water pistol. After about 3 times getting hit, I've never had a cat get back up on one.
 



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