Have a cat that won’t stay off your counters? I do. I finally got fed up with it enough to do something about it: scare the crap out of him with a motion-detecting blender (while recording the results for my own amusement, of course).
Confused at what you’re looking at? This is a repeating shot of security camera footage of my cat jumping on the counter – in search of a plant to munch on – and initiating my Blender Defender. Take a look at the following comic to get a better understanding 🙂
 
Videos
Sorry, but you’re going to have to pretend you can hear an extremely loud blender while you watch these clips
Details
If you were to walk in my house, you may see something you dont normally see in a kitchen. On the wall, to the left of my sink is a webcam (network camera). It is plugged into the network jack and screwed into the wall plate cover, supporting itself. It doesnt get it the way, nor do we ever have to think about it. The camera is being monitored for motion by my computer upstairs in our office.
The camera itself is one of the cheapest network cameras out there, the DCS-900. It can be picked up for about $120 or so. There are a couple network cameras that are a little cheaper, but the D-Link one is pretty rugged and makes it easy to get into the raw feeds, something that cant be said for many other cameras.
As you can see from the videos above, the blender and the strobe light are both controlled by an X10 unit. The unit is sent an on or off command from the computer running upstairs by means of an X10 Firecracker. The Firecracker is just a wireless X10 transmitter that plugs into your serial port. I wont get into explaining it much here, but one thing to note is that is happily co-exists with my CM11A unit.
The computer upstairs is running the ‘motion‘ library for linux. As soon as it detects something moving on camera, it starts recording frames. While it is saving frames, it also initiates another Perl script I wrote that sends an X10 command to turn on the blender and strobe, wait 3 seconds, then turn them off. After the script is done detecting motion, it then splices all the JPG frames together using ffmpeg and saves the resulting movie as a SWF file, which you can see above. Finally, after it saves the movie, I have it set up to email me a link to the movie so I can see the results from where ever I’m at (remotely by using my phone).
Is this cruel?
Of course not! To teach a cat not to do something, it has to get the idea that what it is doing is a bad thing. One way to do so is to sternly tell your cat ‘NO’ when it does something. The cat may learn that it is bad, but more often than not, the cat learns that it’s not supposed to it when your around. This is not what you want. The best way to teach the cat not to get on a counter is to take yourself out of the picture. If the cat jumps up on the counter and is greeted with a scare, it will learn that the counter is not a very nice place to be. The cat is never harmed, but it’s instincts tell is that this may be something to be feared. Just like a vaccuum. The cat doesn’t like it at all, so it stays away.
Some will say that the cat is trying to eat the plant because he needs it for his digestion. In this case, it’s just not true. Our cat doesn’t simply eat our plants. He sees them as a toy. He plays with the stalks, digs them out, etc. We find leaves in the other rooms half the time. And, yes, he does get grass every once in a while.
Project Cost
The table below shows how much money would normally go into a project like this. This isn’t to say that I’ve spent this much, as I already had everything lying around the place, but if somebody else were to start this project, this may be what they should expect to pay.
| Item | Notes | Price |
| Strobe Light | Bought from Spencer’s | 20.00 |
| Blender | Housewarming present, woot. | 50.00 |
| X10 Firecracker | Check Ebay and Amazon if you’re looking for one | 12.00 |
| X10 Appliance Module | You wouldnt want a Lamp Module for this. | 12.00 |
| Network Camera | D-Link DSC-900 | 120.00 |
| $214.00 |
Very clever. The one thing nobody seems to have mentioned is the culinary/life&limb angle. I take it it's easy to disconnect the blender from your high-tech kitty-conditioning system when you want to actually use it? Otherwise, a motion-sensitive blender is likely to lead to fingers in the soup.
If you put mousetraps on the counter and cover them with a single sheet of newspaper, the cat will get the message. Low tech, but very effective. Eventually you can stop the traps, and later you can forget the paper.
There is another cat, a black one, looks like it was electrocuted in the video clip!
LOL
[b]@Bill[/b]: I fixed the bad-word filters. Now it only works when it sees the entire word, instead of it in part of another word 🙂
I don't to see this kind of crap. Why don't you put your face in the blender and let me turn it on you moron.
Another low tech low price option that works, use aluminum foil and wide double sided tape. The cat jumps on to the counter. Sticks to the tape. The crinkly noise the foil makes scares the cat. If you are lucky they get further stuck to the tape. Then tare through the house trying to get away. If you are fortunate enough to watch, it is hilarious.
WTF, Ever heard of the Cat Whisper?
actually, yes.
opps, i guess you didn't check it out,
http://www.animalsheltering.org/resource_library/magazine_articles/jul_aug_2002/cat_whisperer.html
http://www.amazon.com/Cat-Whisperer-Secret-Talk-Your/dp/0764121650
your right, domesticated cats don't travel in packs. but they do at times travel in groups, or at least some of the strays here do.
My sister-in-law bought a $200 dollar cat, I have no idea why you'd spend that kinda money on a cat but anyway, the second day she had the cat it walked across the stove while the stove was on. $300 in vet bills later my sister-in-law didn't have to worry about her cat being on the counter again. Needless to say a motion activated blender would have been cheaper, safer for the cat, and a lot more hilarious.
I'd like to see that black cat with a hi speed camera at slow speed. Hilarious!
The cat attempts to eat from your plant because cats eat (some) plants in order to vomit hairballs. If you want to protect your plant and be nice for your cat, buy cat grass for it.
Hannah said: "This is cruel and if I didnt know about cats and dogs, why did I get my degree in vetrenarian? This is cruel because if the cat keeps getting on the counter, its nervous system will soon be at too much work, causing the cat to slow down and eventully die."
Nom says: Hannah is an idiot. First, that's not how you spell "veterinarian." Second, scaring a cat doesn't cause its nervous system to slow down, converting said cat into metaphorical sloth, which then dies.
Scaring a cat results in bushy tails, dilated pupils, generally erratic behavior, and hilarity. More importantly, if they do (for some unimaginable reason) turn into metaphorical sloths and die, they've still got eight tries left to beat the counter-top blender monster.
I should also add:
Hannah, you can get a degree in Zoology, but Veterinarian is what you become after having received said degree…
On the off chance that you're confused, this means that you did not get a degree "in veterinarian." That would literally mean that you got a degree inside a person with a degree in veterinary science.
Hillarious i Hate cats
Funniest shit I have seen in a while. Well done!
@MumsyBadgers – uhhhh.. this was cruel and disgusting and…. you had an orgasm?
Wow.
Anyway, I found this page a few days ago but came back after it hit BoingBoing. OMG – I was wetting my pants over the hilarity of the videos, but now I just weep for humanity over the human wreckage spewing wisdom here in the comments section.
Plasma & Sarah, it's clear you love your cats, glad you found a way to keep the mischief at bay without resorting to something truly harmful. Thanks for sharing the fun.
too funny!!!
i can't stop laughing. sheer brilliance
I just hope it works. There are a lot of items which pets shouldn't have access to no matter how cute or supposedly harmless. Cats don't tend to respect boundaries given to them without reinforcement. Dogs seem to be more willing to accept boundaries because they believe you are another dog – although a very strange dog.
BTW poster "WTF?" Cats can form matriarchies. I know this unfortunately, because my parents didn't get our cats fixed and we ended up with over eight. Males go away and make other kitties pregnant, and the females tended to stay congregate and develop a pecking order with occasional spats. They are still independent and technically it is not a pack. The independence translates to less loyalty to other members.
Interestingly enough… looking at the dates from the videos, the gadgetry arrangement doesn't seem to have done much for them cats learning anything at all, as they keep on falling for it… So much for Pavlov conditioning… But the videos are hilarious!!!
This is classical conditioning at its cutest. The idea is that the stimuli of the plant and the flashing light/blender are associated and there is no desire to get up there anymore, obviously, and we assume that the stress/fear reaction isnt generalized to all plants or all blenders for that matter, or do we? really, though, this isnt harming the cat and though the enjoyment of the people watching these videos might be repulsive to some, it is a good bit of cognitive psychology.
While it's not as fun, those with less time to tinker can check out the turn-key solution: ssscat (www.ssscat.com). It's a battery-operated motion detector on top of an aerosol can, and was the LAST thing we bought to keep our cat from peeing on the bathroom rug. Of course, if the ssscat doesn't work for me next time I have cat problems, I'll build a Blender Defender!
Geez people relax. They now sell electric mats and even shock collars for cat so I think that this is a great idea compared to that. The cat isn't hurt, yes he is scared but the traditional training tool of a squirt of water or shaking coins in a can make the cat associate the "punishment" with their human. Ideally you want the negative reaction to NOT be associated with their human, you don't want them scared of you. A blender, a light, and a good sense of humor make a lot more sense to me. I have two cats and thought it was hi-larious!
i just love seeing cats go crazy
Antique Koreans were really afraid of cats, thinking they could curse people. It is too bad they did not have such a clever device to help manage their fear and make milkshakes with.
Shortly after the first few nights (and the first few videos were caught) back in July, I made Plasma dismantle the Blender Defender for a party – I wanted it all put away, there were going to be far too many people in the house – and it was our housewarming party – I wanted everything perfect. We kinda forgot about it all, and it never got set back up – that is why you see the gap. When Plasma decided he wanted to get this page up – we set it back up. Apparently the short amount of time it was set up before was not enough to teach him. We will leave it up longer this time – although we haven't caught any videos since the most recent one of the all-black cat you see.
OH, Great, it's so useful and so efficient.
Brilliant! I wish I had come up with something like this before my cat scratched my sofa down to the wood. MY deterrents taught her not to do it when I was around.
you could have saved $214 if you got rid of your cat. Then you would have no cat on the counter problem, and could have gotten rid of your cat.
This looks like so much fun ^^
i want more pictures by Sarah!
I want to see more black cat videos 😀 it is hilarious. I lost count how many times I watched it's video but every time I'm lmao.
did you know that there is a cheaper solution? just put some fresh orange / lemon peel in the plant pot and your cat problem is solved. for some reason cat's don't like that smell + there's less stress for the animal
Hehehehe. Good one. It sure scared the cr@p out of the cat. But more than that, the concept is a good one. Can be used to watch infants!
We demand high speed footage!
will your stuff also have the same efforts on others animals/insex like rats or cockroaches? How about the accuracy?
Cats need grass every day.
I want that! 🙂
Had a problem with a neighbour's cat using our backyard as it's litterbox, so I came up with the shower-o-matic. Solved the problem on day one.
http://ispburger.blogspot.com/2007/06/shower-o-matic-feline-edition.html
Yes Sarah, Please post a few pics of your self.
I don't think that pic does you justice. Great idea, but a little cruel if you ask me.
A bullet would be cheaper and more effective.
Seriously disappointed thought I was going to view a cat blender!
ik heb een hele grote piemel
In the third video the cat looks like it is reacting from an electric shock to it's nose from the metal plantpot rather than noise from the blender or strobe light. Can you confirm this for me please?
I mean the video dated 2008:07:22
this is amazing. So fantastic. I'm walking out the door right now to head to the store to pick up supplies…
Do you think this could be adapted to discourage dogs from defecating in a yard? There's a yard on the side of my apartment building, it's not fenced in, and people bring their dogs there and don't clean up.
I mean the video 2008:10:17. That's the one which looks like the cat has been electrocuted
Check out SSSCAT,from Amazon, for about $20.00. It has a motion sensor and and uses a shot of compressed air for the same effect. I love your ingenuity though. Training a cat is just as important as training your dog not to do something.
Brilliant!! The first few times i watched it though I thought the flashing lights were coming from INSIDE the blender, and I couldnt figure out what sort of bizarre chemical reaction you had going on in there… 😉
As far as dog and using your yard as a restroom, I have a friend who used a motion detecion sprinkler system ! It used only a little water, but worked great as far as stopping dogs from using his yard.