Cat likes to get a sky view of our house....

[Vhernandez96]

Hey Guys,
Im in a bit of a predicament. Any advice or training tips are appreciated! I apologize in advance for the lengthy post!
So I have three cats, one of my cats, Sawyer is his name...He's the cattiest cat I own. He's your typical cat.....
He's definitely a good boy, however, for some reason he has been a LOT harder to train than his brother Oliver and my other cat Paisley. I'd like to point out that Sawyer is about 7 months old. I was easily able to train Paisley (1 year and 9 months) not to get on counters, or the table, she was very trainable. Oliver ( 7 months ) was also fairly easy as well. Sawyer on the other hand, I have tried multiple training techniques to train him to not jump on counters or the table, nothing seems to phase him.

I live in a 2 story house that has 25 foot ceilings, meaning, our upstairs is basically a hallway that has closed rooms on either side, but the hallway has a very high view of everything going on on the first floor. It is a very open floor plan. The hallway is a half wall that from the tip of the hallway wall to the first floor ground is 15 ft tall. The hallway has a very wide surface on the top...appearently this is super appealing for Sawyer.

Very recently, about 2 days ago, Sawyer started to jump up to the hallway wall allowing him to basically sit 15 feet tall. As a cat I can see how this is appealing to him since cats like to be high up. However this is clearly not ideal for his safety and my sanity. Truthfully after a few heart attacks a day when I catch him up there, I came to the conclusion that if he is just sitting then maybe this can be okay..... This is absolutely not okay since yesterday my mom caught him looking like he was going to jump to the ground floor.

I definitely thought about putting some type of cat repellent like duct tape sticky side up or tin foil on top of this hallway wall to deter him from jumping up, however I do get nervous that if it scares him he may fall anyways..... I currently live with my parents (out of college and saving for my own place)... so I can't really make any crazy changes or adjustments to the house....and whatever I end up doing basically has to be a temporary thing, since its not my house. I also thought about creating some type of shelving system that could replace this ledge and allow him to be high up, but that doesn't really mean it will deter him from jumping up there, plus there would still be an issue if he happened to fall.

Again, any advice or training techniques or really anything all all will be so helpful. I'm at a loss. I was looking at accident insurance policies incase he does jump or fall, however that's a safety net, I really need to get him to not do this.

Thank you in advance for any advice or tips

 

[Azazel]

I would go with the route of providing more and safer spaces for him to climb up high. Some cats need to be up high to feel secure and confident. I would look into installing some cat shelves and putting in high cat trees for him.

 

[FeebysOwner]

This pic is just one example (of hundreds) of shelving ideas that you could use, along with cat trees to help with climbing high - the shelving doesn't have to be intrusive looking (can be painted same color as walls) and can easily be taken down and wall patch to repair holes. If such an arrangement could be made for your wall/landing, I think the cat would choose to use it over trying to jump down.

 

[Vhernandez96]

yeah , I guess my only real option is to provide him with another place to be up high and hope that that will lessen the amount of times he jumps up to the ledge

 

[FeebysOwner]

I was kind of thinking you could put shelving up that leads to the hallway ledge, rather than trying to distract him from it by placing cat trees and shelves other places. Giving him a safe way to get up there is a much better prospect than hoping he will stop going there if he has other climbing options.

 

[rubysmama]

I don't have a solution for you, but this is the 2nd thread I've seen lately with a fearless cat that loves dangerously high places. Here's the other thread, which includes a heart attack inducing pic, though no good ideas for deterrents. Cat Growls and hisses at me and kitten