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Miss Cellania
Blender Defender
by Miss Cellania - October 20, 2008 - 7:16 AM
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Here’s a gadget you can’t buy, but you can build. It paid off twice for Brian, first by solving a household problem, then by entertaining us all on the ‘net!

150blenderdefender.jpgThe problem: his cat would get up on the kitchen counter and destroy the houseplants. He wasn’t just eating them; he would play with them and drag leaves through the house. I have a similar problem in that one of my cats believes it is beneath his dignity to drink from a pan on the floor, no matter how fresh the water is. He would much rather drink directly from the faucet or from dishes in the sink. The solution: scare the cat. Brian rigged up a motion sensor connected to a loud blender and a strobe light. An overview of the process is included on the Blender Defender page. The best part is the security camera trained on the area to capture the action. When a motion sensor episode is detected, his computer assembles the images into a flash file, then notifies him wherever he is so he can watch the latest feline humiliation. Warning: cat lovers may feel guilty about laughing at this, but the feeling will pass.

See more video clips at the Blender Defender site. There’s also a price list for the items if you don’t already have them laying around, which doesn’t include the computer setup. Without the camera, you could rig up this training aid for not much money at all. But the video is priceless!

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Comments (8)

  1. Genius!! Brian, Pavlov would be so proud

    posted by JaneM on 10-20-2008 at 7:45 am

  2. We did a similar thing to teach the cat not to scratch at the bedroom door in the wee hours of the morning. We left the vacuum plugged in and in the on position right outside the door. The cord was attached to a surge protector right by the bed. The minute kittykins scratched, my husband flicked the surge protector button and the vacuum would roar to life right by her head. It only took two brief blasts on successive nights, and she’s never done it again.

    posted by terri on 10-20-2008 at 10:08 am

  3. For what it’s worth, cats prefer to drink from running water sources and away from their food source. So if you’ve got a dish of still water next to their food, they’re not going to drink it unless they can’t find anything else. You could solve your problem by setting up one of those ‘cat fountain’ type products in another room.

    posted by Jacquilynne on 10-20-2008 at 11:36 am

  4. I agree with Jacquilynne. It’s instinct. Also, if you have places your cat’s not allowed to go, it’s probably best not to have a cat.

    posted by Mandy on 10-20-2008 at 12:06 pm

  5. What about a cat that just likes jumping on the counters? My cat doesn’t get up for water or for any plants, just to get up and wander around. The spray bottle has worked pretty well, but I know he does it when I’m not around! What’s wrong with training him not to do that?

    posted by Kate on 10-20-2008 at 2:06 pm

  6. That’s hilarious, but Mandy could not be more wrong. I think you should have more places in your house your cats can’t go, more things to scare them, and more cameras to record it. I wonder how many times that guy has scared himself by accident.

    posted by Chris on 10-20-2008 at 2:15 pm

  7. I have a cat that loves to drink hot bath water. While I’m bathing. I call it people soup. And no he’s not allowed to drink after I soap up.

    posted by Vickey on 10-20-2008 at 6:02 pm

  8. Kate, double-sided tape usually helps best with the counter issue.

    posted by Dawn on 11-15-2008 at 5:22 am

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