Solutions for climbing up my screens

[savoirfaire]

Hi all,

My cat on occassion, usually in the early afternoon, gets absolutely nuts. She often acts paranoid/terrified of me and runs around. I THINK she is just trying to get me to chase her, but I don't know.

Anyway, I live in an apartment style condo, with three large windows with big windowsills. I thought these windows would be a cats dream, and she does like going onto the sills. The problem is, the wire screen is on the inside of the window and the the window opens outward with a crank on the sill. When she goes crazy, she constantly tries to climb these screens. It's getting to the point where I can't even have my blinds open, or she will squeeze through the slats and do it.

Usually she just looks at me, goes all panicky, and leaps up onto the screen and clings there. She has caused some damage already.

I try to leave her alone when she goes crazy like this, because I figure if she sees I am totally non aggressive she will mellow out and calm down. But whenever she clings to the screen I have to grab her immediately to try and prevent more damage from occurring. And then I usually hold her securely and scold her before putting her down, but if she still seems panicky and squirmy I don't want her to just "escape" and do more damage. So does anyone have any suggestions for keeping her off my window screens? I'm getting tired of being in a dark apartment, and I want her to enjoy the windows, but not like this.

Thanks for your help.

About the kitten: 5 month old LaPerm

[kitbassgirl]

If you want to just keep her off the window sill I know my cats HATE foil. They hate the noise it makes and the texture. When we first got them they would go behind the couch and climb up the back digging their claws into the leather. So we made lil tubes of foil and put it behind the couch, they went back there once and freaked out! They HATED the texture and had to tiptoe back out, walking partly on the baseboard so they wouldn't have to touch it. And now they don't even try to go back there.

[savoirfaire]

Originally Posted by kitbassgirl

If you want to just keep her off the window sill I know my cats HATE foil. They hate the noise it makes and the texture. When we first got them they would go behind the couch and climb up the back digging their claws into the leather. So we made lil tubes of foil and put it behind the couch, they went back there once and freaked out! They HATED the texture and had to tiptoe back out, walking partly on the baseboard so they wouldn't have to touch it. And now they don't even try to go back there.

If I have to keep her off the windowsill I will, but I would prefer just keeping her off the screens. Maybe I could put foil on the screen? My only concern is as soon as I removed it she would be back on them.

[kitbassgirl]

Originally Posted by savoirfaire

If I have to keep her off the windowsill I will, but I would prefer just keeping her off the screens. Maybe I could put foil on the screen? My only concern is as soon as I removed it she would be back on them.

You'll have to leave it there long enough for your cat to get the idea that it's not something she wants to play with. then try taking it down and if she starts clawing it again then put it back up.
We actually still have the foil behind the couch, we originally had it all along the back of the couch (not behind the couch, actually ON the back of the couch) so they wouldn't climb on it, eventually we took it down but every time we take the foil out from behind it the cats rediscover that area. but it also kept them off the dining room furniture and the kitchen counters, that stuff we had to leave up for about a month before they stopped trying to get back up there.