I stand on the balcony with my back against the railing. Suddenly I tip over like my head is heavy and my feet lose connection to gravity. I fall heads-first.
A variety of this is that I am stupid enough to sit or even stand on the railing and fall.
With Ymir it more like this. I hold him in my arms and go close to the railing, showing him the view or wanting to take a photo of him. He starts to twirl and leaps from my arms over to the other side. I watch him fall sixteen floors.
Variety: I leave the balcony door open and when I come back from where I were I see him standing on the railing looking at me. Slowly I go nearer, talking to him and trying to make him jump down and come to me. When he turns to do so his paw slips and I see him fumble and fall.
Please tell me how to get rid of these life-threatening thoughts. They are keeping us from enjoying being on the balcony. I can not lean against the railing without feeling like I am about to fall. I can not lean against it when John is home, he will drag me away from it with a worried look. I can not sit on the balcony reading while Ymir is there since I am too scared that he will magically jump so high up and over if I look away.
But hey, at least the view is great!
I would suggest getting a few of these - https://i.imgur.com/VlbyW7S.jpg
ReplyDeleteAnd then planting a bunch of this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sansevieria_trifasciata
Don't plant flowers though, most cats are known to love bright moving objects.
Snake plants are hardy, low-maintenance plants, that thrives in tropical weather even indoors. If you grew them to a height enough to poke your face when you lean, it should discourage you from leaning too much :P Supposedly they can improve air quality as well.
These are very common throughout basically all of Asia and most parts of the world so buying these shouldn't be a hassle to find in Singapore.
Lastly, for the sake of easing your worries regarding Ymir, you could get a non-toxic/plant-friendly cat repellent and lightly spray it on the balcony edge/rail, and probably some on the plants. But if Ymir already hates the Snake plants to begin with then cat repellent should be used as emergency.
I also may be completely wrong about everything I just said so no guarantees from me :) Hope it works out though, cheers!
Hello Desmond.
DeleteReally good ideas, we appreciate it. Will look into buying plants if he shows signs of interest in the upper part of the railing. Now he is mostly just sniffing around the base and looking down, not up, so the thoughts are more scary than his actions.
Thank you for reading my (our) blog! :) Are you a local to Singapore?
In that case then the mesh looks sturdy enough. As long as Ymir can't squeeze it's head through loose corners/edge of the mesh he should be fine.
DeleteAnd no I'm not from Singapore, from Malaysia.
Being as scared as we are we made sure there is no loose corners/edges :)
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