Yesterday was a Big Day for Ella and Nina—they got to go outside without a leash for the first time, aided and abetted by the cat-flap (useless fact: it’s Katzenklappe in German) fitted by Kathy’s Dad, Clive (muchas gracias, Clive!).
What I want to do next is butter their paws, to test the theory that this will encourage them to always come home. This is alleged to be an Old Wives’ Tale, but a colleague of mine, who used to be a chemist, tells me that there is sound scientific basis for this practice. Apparently cats will lick the butter from their paws and associate the good feelings that they get with the location of those feelings, and therefore will always come back in order to feel good again.
Here, kitty kitty—come and get your butter fix…
August 6th, 2005 at 5:58 pm
I came across your site by writing, Butter on cats paws. We have a cat that escaped out the window two days after we got it. Three weeks later after a lot of searching we found him. He has now been with us for five days and we have been buttering his paws as we were told this works. We are terrified to let him out and wondered if it worked for you.
Regards Sylvia.
PS. What a lovely baby, you both must be so proud.
August 6th, 2005 at 9:30 pm
Sylvia,
Thanks for your comments – unfortunately I never did get around to testing the buttered paws theory. All I can say is “try it”: it may well work.
Our cats have always come home, thankfully. I think my wife and I would have gone spare if one of ours was away for that long! I’m glad that your cat turned up OK.
August 12th, 2005 at 9:58 pm
Hi!
I also ran across this site by typing in “buttered paws”. I did this for my kitty but I haven’t let her out yet (I just moved and she also did the leaping out the window thing-luckly I found her in the alley 5 days later.) My dad on the other hand has also done it and his kitty comes home every time he is let out, so I hope it works as well for everybody who tries it!