It’s a question on any cat owners mind, how long can I leave my cat alone?’ It’s hard to imagine as they innocently lay there sleeping away most of the day that they can secretly be little terrors and run mayhem around your home. So today I will set out to try and answer just how long can you leave your cat alone.

Sleeping

You have probably noticed that most of the time your cat is nowhere to be seen or is sprawled out in the warmest place it can find fast asleep. A quick look on petmd revealed that in fact cats can sleep anywhere from fifteen to twenty hours in just one day!

Fortunately if this is an issue for you this can actually be fixed with a bit of training and change to the cats routine. Saving you being woken in the middle of the night to the sound of cats racing around your home or leaving you any surprises in the morning.

Surely with all this time sleeping they can’t get up to any mischief? Well perfect paws say that cats are actually most active at night, this is just part of the way they are. Unfortunately this means while you are fast asleep your cat can be up to no good causing no end of trouble.

Boredom

The way your cat spends most of their day sleeping and not much else would have you think that they don’t need much in the way of entertainment, but in fact according to pawculture.com cats can easily grow bored.

Sometimes this can mean them lazing around or over grooming themselves, potentially causing health issues for your little fuzzball. It can also result in more outwardly anti social behavior.

A bored cat can definitely be an issue if left alone, known to shred curtains, chairs and clothes. Sometimes they even become more hostile and find ways of entertaining themselves like chasing your other pets and cornering them.

Cats should be naturally curious and although they sleep most of the day, you should still spend several hours a day engaging their curiosity whether with cat toys and fuss. A bored cat may become lazy and not move for anything other than food, this can cause for them to become over weight and become a health issue.

Pawculture.com suggests that the best way to combat a cat’s boredom is to fill the house with interactive cat toys. Cat’s enjoy climbing, high places and scratch posts which will distract them from trying to climb or sharpen their claws on your curtains when they are bored.

Loneliness

Cat’s don’t always come across as the most social creatures and may not even seem to notice when you are gone, but in truth they do. According to petmd your cat does notice when you are gone and this can actually grow into an anxiety for them if they are left alone for long periods of time.

If you do find yourself leaving your cat alone for long periods of time then they will get lonely and this can have all sorts of impacts to their health. Petmd suggest that it is a good idea to get them another friend to play with.

Adopting one cat can easily mean they have no one to play with or entertain them while you are gone, but if you adopt two together and allow them to become used to one another they will entertain themselves playing and distracting them from causing too much’ destruction.

Boarding Kennels

Being a pet owner can be a great joy, we love our pets through all the trouble they may cause. The last thing you want is for your cat to be in discomfort or stress if you have to go away or if you have planned a holiday.

Boarding kennels seem like a sensible and often easier option to look after your cat if you are going away, but catbehaviorassociates.com warn against using these in most cases. Cat’s can become stressed in new environments with strange smells and noises.

Your home is their home, cat’s are territorial by nature and know their surroundings, enjoy their routines and living around you. They become used to the flow of your life style and are comfortable in that environment a change to this can be unhealthy even if just for a short time.

Catbehaviorassociates.com suggest the best thing to do for your cat is to try get a pet sitter, whether it be someone you know who is familiar with cat’s or someone who is a professional to look after them.

If Boarding Kennels are the choice you decide to make, it would be wise to choose the best one to suit your cat. Try to see it from their perspective, after having a whole house to themselves they won’t want to be crammed into a small cat cage even with supervision and try to make sure the environment is one they can be comfortable in, no loud noises or weird smells that may upset your cat.

You know that small volcano that erupts inside your brain every time you find cat scratches on the surface of your car? Trust me, I understand just how annoying and frustrating it can be. But to be completely fair and honest, it is not entirely the cat’s fault. Those furry little creatures are naturally curious and for some reason find car surfaces super comfortable.

The trouble is when they have to come down as their natural instincts tell them to use their sharp claws to slide off safely; good for the cats but horrible for your paintwork. So what do you do when your truck’s hood or your salon car’s roof becomes your cat’s favorite new napping spot? Below are 6 answers in the form of tips and guidelines on how to keep cats off your car.

What You Need For This DIY Project And How Much It Will Cost You

First thing’s first, you need to stock your arsenal before you go out to battle the menace of cat scratches on your car. Below are a few tools and items that may come in handy for the 7 different steps described below. We have also included a price estimate on some of the items to allow you to efficiently factor them into your budget.

6 Steps You Can Take To Keep Cats Off Your Car

1. Using cat repellent odorants

As with all other animals with a sense of smell, cats tend to avoid certain odors. One of the most effective of these is the moth ball odor. To make this work, place them in a cloth bag and hand the bag anywhere on your car. The odor will keep the cats away for sure. Below is a link to a video on how to use mothballs to repel cats. 

Other repellent odorants that work on cats include natural scents and mineral oils. Of these, lavender and orange are considered the most effective. All you have to do is sprinkle water infused with concentrated amounts of these scents on and around your car.

2. Setting up pet alarms

Pet alarms are probably the most effective as far as keeping cats off your car is concerned. These are usually available in pet supply stores as well as general stores and online markets. More often than not, they use motion detectors or ultrasound systems to detect presence of the cat on or near your vehicle.

Once the cat is detected, the alarm goes off scaring the cat away. Once the cat leaves, the alarm goes off and peace is restored.

One of the best pet alarms in this case is the Tattle Tale Sonic Pet Training Vibration alarm. It uses a motion sensor to detect the presence of the animal on the car and sounds an alarm. This works not only for keeping your cat off the car but also off furniture and any other off-limit locations in your house.

3. Using static mats

Truth be told, this is probably one of the more expensive steps on this list. However, it is one of the most effective on a long term basis ensuring that the cat learns to stay away from the car. The mat is designed to release low frequency static charges to scare the pet away from the car. The best place to set up your static mat is on the hood as cats usually climb onto the car from the front.

A great example of such a mat is the Scat Mat Pet Proofing Mat line .The mats function as described above and are meant to train cats and other animals to stay away from restricted areas including your car’s surface. The mats are available in different shapes and sizes for you to choose from.

4. Using pepper

Using pepper is the easiest and cheapest way to keep cats off your car.However, it takes time and a lot of patience before the cat finally gets the point and stays away. Cayenne pepper and black pepper are the most commonly used in this case. All you have to do is to sprinkle some on the car hood or roof.

As the cat climbs onto the car, its fur and paws will pick up some of the pepper. And when the cat is cleaning itself later on, the irritating taste of pepper will discourage them from climbing back onto the hood. This also works if you sprinkle some of the pepper around the car instead of on it.

5. Covering your car

Another trick that is bound to work is simply covering your car. This doesn’t necessarily keep cats away but it instead helps by preventing direct contact between the cat’s claws and the surface of your car. That way, you protect the paint job from cat scratches without denying your furry buddy their comfort.

This would be perfect if you don’t use your car very often as it is cheap, manageable and highly efficient.

6. Cat training and conditioning

Finally, good old fashioned training should go a long way in ensuring that your cat stays off your car. There are many ways to do this with the alarm system and static mats being very useful. However, you can use positive and negative reinforcement tactics to let your cat know that what they are doing is unacceptable.

Different methods work in this case with everything from simple shooing away to more extreme measures such as spraying them off using a water hose.

Negative reinforcement is without a doubt the most effective method in this case. This is where the cat gets some form of punishment when they get onto your car. The best way to do this without being cruel is simply spraying them with some cold water. Cats are intelligent animals and it shouldn’t take long for them to realize that they are not welcome onto your car surface.

Conclusion

Whether it is your house pet or strays, you will not have to worry about unsightly scratches on your car anymore with the 6 steps described above. The best thing about each and every one of these steps is the fact that in addition to being super easy and effective, they are cheap with some actually requiring absolutely no monetary investment. So try any of them out today and let us know how things worked out.

Did you find our tutorial informative and useful? We hope so. Let us know in the comments down below. And if you really like the instructions, feel free to share the article with friends and family in the same catty predicament.

Cats are known to act weird. Felines for instance may decide to tear your pillows and your sheets, but the strangest of all these attitudes may be it, staring at walls.Why does your cat stare at walls? This is odd and even frightening to look at such a scene. Why should a cat stare at a wall for hours?

You may think you are living with a ghost or that; your cat has been bewitched. Don’t be in trouble,several years ago, I had a cat which was always staring at me for no peculiar reason; I wondered why? I carried out some research and came out with the answer that, there are facts to explain these amazing manners. Let us examine some of them.

Did you know that cats have highly sensitive hearing? Little secrets about them which will make you wonder.

Cats can hear sounds that we can not as human beings. A study made by some researchers disclosed that, the ability of a cat to hear a sound is estimated at 45 to 64,000 while it approximates 64 to 23,000 for human beings.

​Their ears are meant to attract sounds in the ear tube, in such a way that, they may be able to catch the sound of a mouse whistling in the forest some feet away. This can explain why they may stand still, staring at the wall. They may have heard a noise they are trying to locate and to encrypt.

Cats see well, when the light is low. Did you know it?

Cats have the rare ability to see in the dark. For instance, their eyes detect more spectra of light than ours do. They may sometimes see things we will never expect to see. So, don’t be shock if your cat spends hours gazing at your wall. He may have seen a strange shade of light, may be a ghost, who knows?

Why are cats so curious? Stop wondering

Did you know that your brain’s cat is quite different from yours? Don’t be afraid, we are not saying that it is cleverer than you. Not at all, it is your pet. It is just more curious. In other words, cats are very attracted with the idea of figuring out what is going on around them.

So,when they have the merest feeling of a noise or when they seem convinced that,they have seen something that may be harmful to them, they will not move for hours, trying to discover the hidden mystery behind it.

Once you will notice that, your cat has stopped staring at the wall, it is good news for both of you. It simply means you are safe from any attack. This attitude astonished me one day, I tried to understand as I previously told you,why my cat was staring at me on a regular basis.

I fell on a video on you tube where I could discover the strangest cats I have never guessed to see. I understood that my cat was not at all dreadful. I saw a cat staring at a wall for six hours. Its unflappable attitude prevented the cat to move its eyes while its owner was moving his hands in front of its eyes.

Once the cat noticed that the noise had been caused by a rat trying to hide itself from the predator it was, he suddenly jumped to catch its prey which was invulnerable in its claws.Is it not amazing?

Have you never minded why they are so cautious? They are real predators.

​History tells us that, cats ancestors were trained to survive in hostile areas. They should learn to use their extreme developed senses to chase and to assure their self defence. So, why do you wonder if your cat behaves as if, a very old woman had casted a spell on its eyes?

​Your cat has inherited this attitude from its ancestors. It instinctively knows that it belongs to a race that fights to eat and to assure its self-defence. This explains why the cat may spend hours and hours staring at a wall.

​It may be searching for the appropriate dinner. It is generally known that even mice and rats are endowed with very sensitive hearing. For this reason, cats should be more focus than them to be able to get the smallest sound caused by their move. Otherwise, they will not be able to catch them.

​This attitude is most common with felines; they are so skilled to assure their self-defence that, they will often cause a general mess at home. They will tear your sheets and scatter your clothes. Some will even hide in very small areas for a couple of days when they will feel that, their life is in danger.

​When should you really be afraid?

​You have reasons of thinking that, your cat has a problem when it stares at the wall in a specific manner. If it stares at the wall for few minutes and that it lives later on, to suddenly start playing with its tail, your cat may be suffering from hyperesthesia.

​Some other signs which accompanied the staring at the wall, can testify to you that your cat should be examined by a veterinarian. Some of them include your cat, grooming itself with a sharp interest on its tail, your cat which does not stand any physical contact, it would promptly almost fight with its own tail or will start squeezing the upper side of its head on the wall while staying cool.

​As we have just demonstrated above, staring at walls is a peculiar attitude to cats. It is even evidence that they are in good health, except in some cases. This hence appears like a loss of time to worry when your cat has such an attitude. First simply try to determine whether it is normal or not. Then, stimulate your cat’s attitude to show some attention to your lovely pet.

You can for instance, position your ears in such a way that will make your cat believe that you are also listening to something or you may project a shade of light on a wall to attract its attention. Feel free to ask your questions or leave your comments.