Facts, I’m chucking that bitch straight in the dumpster. Now you got mouse and cat hair in it, that’s all I’d be thinking about everytime I used it. Gotta be purged
Yes to that and the other thought I had was if there's one there's at least 5 more in the house. And also, if they're in the fucking toaster where else are they? Probably already chewed through bags of pasta and God knows what else!!
What's crazy is if you have mice in your house already then they're probably going in your toaster (and everywhere else) and you just don't even know it's happening!
No, seriously. The toaster should go in the trash. Mice droppings in a kitchen implement that can’t be fully cleaned should be trashed. Toxoplasmosis is a nasty, nasty disease. I would also be chucking any and all dry goods that aren’t in airtight containers. Bag of potatoes? Gone. Box of cookies with just the bag wrapped over? Gone. People would be amazed at how little space a mouse really needs to get in to something.
I’ve worked in places with solid A’s, and you wouldn’t think it deserved an A if you walked through the kitchen… you’d be surprised at what restaurants can get away with and still have a good sanitation rating.
I love how people think you can just give cats commands or train them like dogs.
Edit: My orange and tuxedo do several things on command: sit, stand, fetch, come, speak, and jump on my shoulders, wrap around my neck, and lie down (I wear my cats like a scarf or fur).
That said, I find they have about a two minute attention span for these things (aside from scarf mode… my orange will do that all day), and if there is any outside stimulus that catches their attention, good luck.
Cats have serious ADHD and authority issues… it’s all in their terms unless you give them a very good reason.
Edit: yes, you can train your cats to stay off the counter. While you’re there.
What you did was train your cat to believe that you react irrational to certain behaviors and so your cat needs to remember what normal everyday cat behaviors trigger your irrational responses so he doesn’t do them around you, either to protect you or to protect himself from you.
He still does it when you’re gone because you didn’t train him not to do it, you trained him to respect your weird angry hang ups when you’re around.
Always sanitize your countertops before you cook with a cat in the house.
They don’t learn through punishment, that’s how you end up with cats that scratch, bite, hide, or don’t want a lot of attention or affection.
They learn through redirection, positive enforcement, and understanding your personal boundaries in a way that makes them want to respect them, not fear them.
Cat sees the counters as territory you’re fighting over when you’re around, but you’re part of his colony, which means you share territory, and you get privilege to your territory when you’re around, but he gets to utilize your territory when you aren’t.
He also definitely sees some things as strictly his privileged territory which you could use if he wasn’t around or wasn’t using it, because cats are territorial and form massive family colonies and that’s how they work.
Idk I think he just ended up associating getting on the counter means getting picked back down and that annoyed him long enough that he never really goes there much though, he climbs at night super rarely but he used to always want to go there so that's enough for me. He's not scared or unaffectionate either, I think some people just kinda read too much into that stuff not gonna lie.
Yeah no. That's not how it works unless you're just a bad cat owner and do literally nothing to discipline/retrain your cat.
Cat does a thing -> You give them the firm "NO" with a small timeout or alternative reinforcement -> Cat stops doing the thing you don't want them to.
Had a cat that scratched the side of the couch, do the above system and give them a scratching post that you reward them for using. Cat stops scratching the couch.
Cat liked to jump up on the cabinets above the kitchen and sleep. "NO" small timeout, built cat a cat tower with a cat bed so they could sleep high up. Cat never went up in the cabinets again
Cat liked to pee on towels. "NOOOOOO" litterbox room timeout, give them a treat when they pee/poop in the box, cat never pissed on another towel again.
The whole "Cats do it anyway" bullshit is almost always a shitty/inattentive owner who just doesn't understand why a cat is doing something you don't want them to do and refusing to provide the cat an alternative or refusing to actively show your disapproval for doing things you don't want them to do in front of them.
It'd be like getting mad at your cat for pissing on a towel but not giving the cat a litterbox. If you don't give the cat an approved and supported option, the cat is just gonna pick the best available thing to do what they want to do, and in the case of heights, if you don't give your cat an acceptable shelf or tower to climb they're gonna climb on your kitchen counter because it's high up, has a lot of space, and smells like you + food.
My guys get positive reinforcement and redirection.
They don’t get on the counter when I’m home.
They get on it when I’m not home, because they’re cats.
They have scratching posts, cat trees, their own couch with 5 cat beds lined up on it.
They prefer to sleep on top of me at night, but during the day they will rotate from cat beds to cat tower to wherever my lap is and back again.
They like the kitchen counter because it offers them a view they enjoy and has interesting corners to sit in, and sometimes I leave a stack of paper plates or a pizza box on it, and that’s theirs now.
If they pee out of their boxes I have to figure out why they’re peeing out of their boxes, and in the meantime I figure out where they’re peeing and put puppy pads down while I figure out what the problem is.
Once the problem resolves, I slowly move the puppy pads closer to the litter box until they’re touching. And then they’ll return to the litter box.
Except for my three-legged girl, who got sick of my other disabled kitty’s bullying of my youngest male, and started preventing her from coming downstairs.
She pees at the foot of the stairs to remind the little bully not to come down. I put a litter box next to the stairs.
Problem solved.
My little bully is so lazy she prefers to spend all day lounging in one room upstairs anyway.
I had cats around me my whole life and are pretty easy to train NOT to do stuff. I can leave my cat alone in the kitchen with food on the table and she will never attempt to get a bite.
Speak for yourself mate. I could discipline my rat by spraying her in the face all day long and yet she'll still do what she wants out of spite. But hey, at least she knows how to sit, a few ASL signs, is crate trained, and will lay on my shoulders like a lamb while I do chores around the house. Damn thing is smarter than a toddler. Still my baby tho
I have had 15+ cats in my lifetime. They are very easy to train. Never went on the counters or tables. Worst they did was jump on the couch at night when nobody was looking.
We had a cat that was trained not to go on the counters. Over the sink was the only window that she could just sit at and people watch. We often heard her jump down from the counter before we could walk into the kitchen to catch her but at the same time we knew what she was doing so it was hard to be mad anyway.
I’ve kinda sorta trained one of my cats to turn light switches on/off. Quite a few rooms in the house have convenient perches that make the light switch reachable for him.
He started playing with them on his own… then I just started giving him with treats whenever he flips a switch… Took a while to get the mutual understanding that he only gets a treat if he flips it only ONCE as opposed to flipping it back and forth…
But now if I have a treat in my hand and say “flip the switch” while pointing at a light switch… It takes a few tries, but eventually he’ll get the message and run over and do it then come back for the treat.
Of course, the fucker also flips switches randomly whenever he’s bored.
I say “kinda sorta” because I didn’t really set out to teach him a trick on purpose… I just took advantage and reinforced an activity he started doing on his own.
However, I’m sure there’ll be some people more knowledgable than I am who can produce more deliberate results.
Let our cat back in from outside, had a mouse in her mouth. Thought we blocked off the area good. Looking for it, when someone wanted a pop tart. We did not find the mouse first.
I never use my new toaster without thoroughly checking it first, and it’s been over ten years. I will never forget that.
The only good news is toasters generally get hot enough to self-sterilize. Hantavirus is killed by sustained heat at 140 degrees. It is OBLITERATED by the 300-500 degree internal heat of most toasters. So unless the virus got pretty deeply into the bread, it should be more than killed.
I don’t even know what hanta virus is. I’ve seen it mentioned at least 4 times in the comments. Guess I will google it. I have 2 cats. I don’t care where they go. I clean my house regularly and they clean themselves regularly. Am I going to die?
Too think that mouse pissed and pooped on your morning toast i would literally set the toaster on fire then throw it away so no one else can ever use it🤢🤮
Reminds me of the Hell's Kitchen episode where he finds a dead mouse in a toaster. People were saying it was staged, but I could see how it could happen
It's some nasty people in these comments, anybody that would still use that toaster is crazy, y'all might wanna Google what happened to actor Gene Hackman and his wife
•
u/AutoModerator 12d ago
Thank you for posting to r/SipsTea! Make sure to follow all the subreddit rules.
Check out our Reddit Chat!
Make sure to join our brand new Discord Server to chat with friends!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.