Help! Griefers interfering with my SL game play!

I am now being griefed regularly by Pumpkin Puddinsocks and Pushkin Pantaloons.

Pumpkin and Pushkin both have been jumping onto my power supply and shutting down my entire system while I am in SL.

They also both sit on my monitor and put their big bushy tails down over my screen so I can't see.

Pushkin has a severe drooling problem, and drooled repeatedly on my monitor so much while sitting on top of the monitor, that it shorted out and died. I had to get a new one.

Pushkin also keeps taking papers, dragging them over behind my computer, and building nests on top of the wires. I throw all the papers away and she just gets more and builds another one. I removed her last stash of paper and put it on top of the kitchen counter. A few hours later I caught her getting the papers one by one and dragging them back into my office, jumping up onto my desk, and rebuilding her nest behind my computer.

They never used to do these things. They both just started these behaviors in the past few weeks. I am totally perplexed by these sudden new behaviors.

Pumpkin and Pushkin are my Persian cats. They are 10 and 12 years old. They have turned evil. Well, Pushkin has always been evil, but Pumpkin has always been st00pid, spending most of his life just staring in perplexity trying to figure out what's going on in the world around him.

Any advice? I'm thinking of getting a staple gun so when they hang their tails down over my screen I can just staple them to the top of my new monitor. I'm also definitely getting Pushkin a bib.

Thanks,
Candie

Water pistol.

The cat that owns me has a brain the size of a walnut, took over 100 training bouts to learn that the outdoors is unpleasantly cold in winter, and cannot learn that the food visible inside the gravity feeder can be grabbed. Having failed these pretty blatant associative learning tasks, the cat has learned the prohibited areas with one squirt of the gun required.

I don't know how this works on older cats. I would suggest that duct tape is less messy than a staple gun.

I would be pissed too if that was my name.

I've found that cats don't respond well to positivie reinforcement, so negative reinforcement (or some sort of punishment) is about your only shot at making them change their behavior.

My two cats utterly HATE being crammed into a cat carrier because they know it means something unpleasant (hours in the car because we're moving, or a trip to the vet). Maybe keep a cat carrier near your computer, and if one of the cats engages in one of the behaviors you don't want, stuff him/her into the carrier for anywhere from 15-30 minutes. Yes, it will be a hassle, and yes, you will probably have to put up with some pitiful/enraged yowls, but I bet it will solve your problem after a few instances of "kitty time out."

Good luck, Candie, I know how it is to have a couple of evil felines around the house.

squirting a bit of water on her heads does tend to deter mine permanently from whatever she were doing wherever she happened to be.

it may take two or three applications, but rarely more.

when i say premanently, i mean for about three weeks.

ROFL

Tin Foil, Lots of it.. Cats hate the feel of Tin foil..place some on top of your monitor, but it must be crinkled.. also good for furniture.. Good luck..

Soren

My babies love tin foil!
A can of CAT NO ( Heartz purple top spray can found in the food stores pet section) sprayed on some fabric, left on top of you desk or what ever area you have that you dont want them near works well. The smell is unpleasent, not to just them. If you spray it on a piece of felt, hand towel, ect you can place it around the poewer supply, on top of you monitor and lay it any where you dont want the PP twins to go. After awhile they know that those places dont smell nice and they avoid those areas.
Most importantly, Candie they have figured out when your on the PC your not paying attention to them.
My babies Koal and Slate have the uncanny nack of reading the forums and seeing when I have scheduled my events. They arrive precisely in time, to want to walk all over my keyboard, steal my pens, sit on the mouse.... you get my drift.
Hope this works for you. Negative reinforcements, positive reinforcements? They are cats they have a mind and a will of ther own. Got to love 'em.

I saw on a t.v. show how to keep your cats from scratching up your furniture or going where they shouldn't be.

Get some lemon scented soap or if you can't, just some lemon juice. Rub it on whatever you want the cats to stay away from. The scent isn't very strong to humans but to cats it's like a wailing banshee of olfactory horror.


Plus it's not mean like squirting them.

12 is old for a cat. Pushkin has obviously become senile, and now thinks she is a gerbil. That would explain the nest building activity behind the computer.

ask yourself these question....if you answer yes to more than 20..buy a DOG!!!

Do you select your friends based on how well your cats like them?
Does your desire to collect cats intensify during times of stress?
Do you buy more than 50 pounds of cat litter a month?
Do you scoop out the litter box after each use? Do you wait at the box with the scoop in your hand?
Do you think it's cute when your cat swings on the drapes or licks the butter?
Do you admit to non-cat owners how many cats you really have?
Do you sleep in the same position all night because it annoys your cats when you move?
Do you kiss your cat on the lips?
Do you feed your cat tidbits from the table with your spoon?
Does your cat sit at the table (or ON the table) when you eat?
Does your cat sleep on your head? Do you like it?
Do you have more than four opened but rejected cans of cat food in the refrigerator?
Do you watch bad TV because the cat is sleeping on the remote?
Did you buy a video tape of fish swimming in an aquarium to entertain your cat?
Will you stand at the open door indefinitely in the freezing rain while your cat sniffs the door, deciding whether to go out or come in?
Would you rather spend a night at home with your cat than go out on a bad date?
Do you give your cat presents and a stocking at Christmas? Do you spend more for your cat than you do for your spouse?
Do the Christmas cards you send out feature your cat sitting on Santa's lap? Does your cat sign the card?
Do you put off making the bed until the cat gets up?
Does your cat eat out of cut crystal stemware because you both watched the same commercial on television?
Do you microwave your cat's food? Prepare it from scratch?
Do you climb out of bed over the headboard or footboard, so you won't disturb the sleeping cat?
When you are preparing to leave for the day, do you seek out each cat and inform them of your anticipated return time?
Do you sleep with no pillow under your head, because the cat wants to sleep on it?
Do you stand at the computer because the cat is sleeping on the chair?
Do you you make sure there's plenty of kitty litter in the house, even though you may run out of toilet paper?
At the store, do you pick out the catfood before you pick out anything for yourself?
Do you go to sleep sitting up in bed because you were reading and the cat is curled up on your lap asleep?
Does it always take you longer than expected to read a magazine, because the cat keeps curling up on it while you're reading?
Do you frequently leave your dresser drawer open when you leave for the day, because the cat jumped into one of them and is asleep in one of the drawers?
Is the only comb you can find in the bathroom a flea comb?
Do you cook a special turkey for your cat on holidays?
Does your cat "insist" on a fancy Sunday breakfast consisting of an omelette made from eggs, milk, and salmon, halibut, or trout?
Do you have pictures of your cat in your wallet? Do you bring them out when your friends share pictures of their children? (Pollsters claim that 40 percent of cat owners carry their pet's pictures in their wallets, by the way.)
When people call to talk to you on the phone, do you insist that they say a few words to your cat as well?
Do you accept dates only with those who have a cat? If so, do you eventually double-date with the cats to see how they get along?
When someone new comes to your house, do you introduce your cat, by name, to them?
Do you keep old, empty pizza boxes on the counter instead of throwing them away, because the cat likes to sleep in it?
Do you have to replace your vacuum cleaner yearly because it's tightly clogged with cat fur?
Do you have to shake your shoes each morning so you aren't walking around on kitty litter pebbles during the day?
When you cook fried chicken, do you find yourself tempted to lock yourself in the bathroom so you can eat without all the cats staring at you?
Does the grocery-store checker ask you "How many cats do you HAVE, anyway??"
Is your vet bill higher than your doctor bill?
Are all the books in your bookcase about cats?
Are all your bookmarks to cat sites?
Does your cat have its own web page or email address?
Do you set your alarm clock for 5:30 in the morning, so you can get up and clean the litter box before the cat needs to use it?
Does your cat inform you of when it's time to feed him/her?
Do you go to bed when your cat tells you to?
Does your cat act as your personal alarm clock?
Are you your cats personal toy finder?

My cat died a few months ago and was about 18 years old. She didn't really act senile until a year or so until she died. She pretty much acted the same running around, sleeping, playing with a cat toy, etc.

She also didn't think she was a gerbil

Awww.. when I first started reading, I was excited to think that they added "Pantaloons" as a last name in SL.

Diplomacy is always best with kittys. A water gun may be quite effective, but if you do that, you better protect your computer cables from chewing, and watch where you step =D

A good blast of compressed air is quite effective also.

A swift kick also works (jk)

If you throw a cat out of the car window, does it become kitty litter?

Get them a nice computer and some SL accounts.
They just want to play too.


fen-

Hehe, my cat always begs for the left over tinfoil bits when I use it for cooking. It's definitely not -healty- for a cat, but I wouldn't say they all hate it.

Feniks may be on to something!

Squirt bottles, double sided sticky tape, citrus scented spray (make sure to get the non-toxic kind!) and a sharp voice are the best methods I have been able to use with my own little black tabby troublemaker. He's started to get pretty persistant with me lately because I spend a lot of time at my desk, and he wants attention. So maybe that's all that P & P are asking for.

And purrsonally, I think they're cute names for a pair of Persians. ^_~

As Nova said, double sided sticky tape works wonders. Cats HATE sticky stuff. Petco sells packs of inch wide stiff strips of plastic that have sticky stuff on them. You cut them into strips and criss-cross them over the area you don't want your cats to go. I've used them to keep my cat from pooping in my bananna plant Also cat-away sprays work fairly well too. They have the faint scent of fox urine (too faint for humans to smell). Cats tend to stay away from things they think might eat them Squirt guns work well too, but I don't recommend shooting water around your monitor, hehe.

"Cat Nip"

or

Duck tape and pliers (LOL j/k)

"Cat Nip"

Whatever you do, if you put stuff on the monitor or computer don't block the venting areas...or you might end up having to get a third monitor..

A good friend of mine had a dog named Pushkin.

Feeding and giving them attention works for me I have 4
no staple gun! no squirting! no duct tape! yes on the Cat Nip and Foil. Or buy a bird to give them another focus.

I unfortunately cant offer any advice, as I share my home with The Seed Of Satan Himself, Skwert, and havent found the first thing yet that is an effective deterrent.

thanks though, all of you with good responsive kitties, I will be trying some of these suggestions on the Orange Devil, who thinks he is a ninja.
This is a really helpfull thread!