The (self-)defenestrations of Ziva
Ziva and Jasper are still together in the apartment, though we’ve been keeping them in different rooms. For a while we kept Ziva in the bathroom. We’d take her out sometimes, and she and Jasper would fight, and then we’d return Ziva to her confinement. At first she didn’t seem to mind, but eventually she started meowing in protest.
Last night I felt so sorry for her that I insisted she be kept in our nice bedroom. Easier said than done – the bedroom hasn’t got a door.
We solved this problem by blocking the doorway with a bookcase. The space at the top of the doorway remained exposed, so we stacked things above the bookcase. Although a small window of space was left open, we figured Ziva couldn’t jump high enough to reach it; the barricade seemed formidable.
We also stacked books on top of a nearby dresser so that Ziva couldn’t jump onto it and then jump out over the barricade.
Alas, these book stacks proved not to be high enough. Here’s a video of Ziva getting out:
Karin & I had to tear down the barricade, go out into the livingroom, catch Ziva (who again was fighting with Jasper), and bring her back into the bedroom. After several rounds of trial and error, we made the book stacks high enough that Ziva couldn’t escape.
(We shot more video of Ziva leaping onto – and bouncing off of – the book stacks. But I’m not going to post any of that. It would be cruel.)
We were crawled upon by Ziva all during the night. Worse was when we had to wake up to use the toilet. (We’d drunk a lot of water before bed-time; constructing the barricade made us thirsty.) We had to dismantle the barricade and build it up again … and again, in the morning, when I got up for work … and again when Karin did.
Since then, we’ve been making Jasper and Ziva take turns being confined inside of the bedroom. It hasn’t helped their relations. They still hiss and swat at each other through a crack in the barricade.
Karin & I have agreed that although Ziva and Jasper are both very nice kitties, they’ll never get along. We’ve begun looking for somebody else to adopt Ziva.
Last night I felt so sorry for her that I insisted she be kept in our nice bedroom. Easier said than done – the bedroom hasn’t got a door.
We solved this problem by blocking the doorway with a bookcase. The space at the top of the doorway remained exposed, so we stacked things above the bookcase. Although a small window of space was left open, we figured Ziva couldn’t jump high enough to reach it; the barricade seemed formidable.
We also stacked books on top of a nearby dresser so that Ziva couldn’t jump onto it and then jump out over the barricade.
Alas, these book stacks proved not to be high enough. Here’s a video of Ziva getting out:
Karin & I had to tear down the barricade, go out into the livingroom, catch Ziva (who again was fighting with Jasper), and bring her back into the bedroom. After several rounds of trial and error, we made the book stacks high enough that Ziva couldn’t escape.
(We shot more video of Ziva leaping onto – and bouncing off of – the book stacks. But I’m not going to post any of that. It would be cruel.)
We were crawled upon by Ziva all during the night. Worse was when we had to wake up to use the toilet. (We’d drunk a lot of water before bed-time; constructing the barricade made us thirsty.) We had to dismantle the barricade and build it up again … and again, in the morning, when I got up for work … and again when Karin did.
Since then, we’ve been making Jasper and Ziva take turns being confined inside of the bedroom. It hasn’t helped their relations. They still hiss and swat at each other through a crack in the barricade.
Karin & I have agreed that although Ziva and Jasper are both very nice kitties, they’ll never get along. We’ve begun looking for somebody else to adopt Ziva.