Trying to peer out through the blinds.

[watcher-45]

Ok, looking for some expert advice on this one.

Where I am currently living I'm technically not allowed to own a cat, but I do anyway.  The apartment is relatively safe from prying eyes and listening ears, but there is one high window in my room that leads to the front of the building and my cat loves to look out it and watch the world turn.

I like that he enjoys it, and I open the blinds up when I know it is safe and let him perch up on the window sill, but during the day when I know he should be out of sight he can't help but paw at and try to peek through the blinds and all I need is for someone to notice and speak out.

There are plenty of other windows in the apartment that are 100% safe to observe through, and I made it a point to open the blinds on these.  Every time he climbs up on my window and tried to shove his head through the blinds I pick him up, give him a firm "no", set him down on an open window, then praise him with stroking and kind words (he doesn't do treats).  When it is safe and I open the blinds on the front window, when he goes up there I let him enjoy himself.

I'm hoping to get him to the point where he knows if the blinds are open he can look, but if the blinds are closed the window is off limits.

Is this something within the realm of possibility?  Or am I wasting his and my time by simply confusing him?

It has been a few days now and he seems to not get the hint yet, I know these things take time but I'm wondering if I am going about this all wrong.

Thanks for any help/advice.

 

[ritz]

Don't know about the blind issue, but are you allowed to put one-way screens/mirrors in the window: so you can see in, but no one can see in?

 

[watcher-45]

That's actually a really good idea, I'll be sure to keep that in mind!

 

[murr7maggiom]

I hope you can work on finding a different place to live for you and your cat. Is there a damage deposit required where you now live? I'd hate to see you be evicted for violating a rental agreement.

 

[watcher-45]

Have been working on finding a new place to live, which might be in Tucson Arizona in the next month or two (currently in Chicago Illinois), but the landlords are kind of down to earth and relaxed.  I feel bad about it, but I don't always pay rent on time and they don't seem to mind one bit.

They are the parents of an acquaintance I have, so that might give me some leeway.

They did have a no-pets policy because a previous tenant had ferrets and let them roam about and they peed on everything, but as long as he shows no evidence of destruction (so far so good, no walls scratched up, no pee anywhere, we keep his box and eating area clean all the time so nothing smells...) I think the worst they'd do is just tell me to get rid of him.

I don't think they'd evict me, if they keep the security deposit then oh well, and if I'm instructed to re-home him I have a line of friends who would take him in a heartbeat!

And if I get evicted?  Well, drop by my parents for a week or two and sell all my stuff, then off to Arizona!

 

[asherdash]

Please be careful with the blind cords. I read a very sad story on this site, involving blind cords.

 

[watcher-45]

I read the same story, lucky for us none of the pull cords are bundled and all the ends hang loose and individually (nothing to get wrapped up in), and even so my cat doesn't play with them.  He just likes poking his head through the physical blinds to see through.

In any case, he is so large/heavy that the blinds themselves wouldn't support his weight if he slipped while poking is head through, and the blinds are all so close to large surfaces that he wouldn't fall down to anywhere.  Of the four sets of venetian blinds in the house 3 go all the way to the floor and have no high surface near them, and the one he likes to peer out of has a dresser running the length of it.

And just to be safe I've been in the habit of closing him into a safe room when I leave.  The rest of the house has vertical blinds and thus pose no risk.

 

[furmonster mom]

This reminded me of a time -*cough cough*- years ago....

I was young, and it was my first "real" apartment away from home.  It was a decent complex, but the neighborhood could be sketchy at times.

Nevertheless, I was confident in my precautions; made friends with my neighbors, familiarized myself with cars, always locked my doors & windows, always aware of my surroundings.

I also had my cat. 

She loooooved to poke her head out the blinds.

Every day when I came home, I would look up to see her poke her head out the blinds and watch me come up the stairs.

It was a regular ritual.

Then one day....

I looked up, and the blinds flickered.

I waited to see her head... and they flickered... and I waited... and they flickered...

I started to get nervous.  This was not the regular flicker that I was accustomed to seeing.  It was higher up, and it was very slight...

There was no kitty nose or ears to be seen, nor paws...

I got reeeeeaaaally nervous.

I called her name.

No answer.

After about 10 minutes, I decided not to chance it.

I went to the neighbors and called the police.

How to explain?

"My blinds are flickering... it could be my cat... but I'm not really sure.  Yes, I know it sounds silly, but could you send someone to check for me?"

They sent the K9 units.

Three of them!

Needless to say, they didn't find anyone in the apartment... and they definitely didn't find the cat.

When I went in, I found her hiding amongst some boxes on the top shelf of my closet.

Poor thing.

She got me back, though.

In another apartment, a few years later.

I came home to find a card from the local police on my table.

They had responded to a 911 call, but found nobody home.

As I sat at my desk, puzzling over it, my cat walked across my office style phone... *beep, boop, beep, beep, boop*

ACK!

Anyway... to the OP's actual question.

You may be sending your kitty mixed messages about that window.  Animals don't really have the same sense of time or logic parameters that humans do.

They do make emotional associations between behavior and reward (or deterrents), but it's not necessarily a process of logic. 

The emotional association with the window is that it is awesome to see things outside.  She is not necessarily reasoning that there are certain criteria surrounding that emotional reward.

Cat wants what she wants, and if you allow it some times, why not all times?  That does not compute with her.

It's probably best if you discourage her from using that window at all.  That would be more consistent.