Now that the baby shower(s) have come and gone, we have baby things. Furniture meant exclusively for this tiny person. And our resident cats take exception to this.

In the picture above, I present Exhibit A. Tako Yaki, our male long hair, dismissively sitting on all the stuffed animals we piled in the bassinet to discourage exactly this behavior. Placing hard objects like rulers and plastic bits did nothing. The spray bottle threat did nothing. Now we just look at him in disapproval.

I would also like to submit for the court my first person account of Mr. Yaki taking up residence on the newly installed changing table. (Not so much a table as two storage boxes stacked on top of each other with a changing pad on top. What can we say? We’re practical.) I woke up at 3 AM to take one of the many bathroom breaks I now need during a night’s sleep only to find Mr. Yaki, curled up peacefully on the very edge of the changing pad. This was despite a large plastic bin we placed on top of the pad to keep the cats from sleeping there. Alas, to no avail.

And let us not forget that Mr. Yaki’s known associate, a Ms. Haru Maki, also knowingly and willfully ignores her humans’ request to avoid sitting on the baby’s furniture. Time and again, she has been found lounging or sleeping in the car seat that currently resides in the living room. She seems to be less than pleased that we finally placed a mason jar there to keep her out of it. However, she is not above sitting in the shelf that hangs beneath the bassinet on occasion.

What do other folks do about cats on the baby furniture? Do you just give in and let the cats have sway? I’ve heard of things like SSSCat to use as a deterrent. But it seems mean. We don’t want the cats to associate the sensation with the baby being in the house.

(Skip to the one minute mark to see SSSCat in action.)

If you have tips and tricks, let us know. Thanks in advance!