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 |
cats are dumb
I am wondering if this really works if you have a place that you post new videos….are you constantly changing cats or are the same cats just not learning to stay off of the counter?
Thanks for going ahead and providing instructions for the building device ! While it seems to stir a lot of controversy on the subject of how best to discipline and animal without crossing the line into abuse, I'd like everyone to keep in mind that the inventor of the device is quite ingenious in his use of both light and sound.
We have had a similar problem, with our two cats who seem to always jump up on our counter and get into the bread box ( though we have tried shutting it in a myriad of ways). OUR solution was to get both cats together and rape one in front of the other, afterward punching it in the face all while the other cat watches in horror. For us, this seems to have solved the problem completely.
Okay, one : Yes it was found to be quite humerous. (Send that to A.F.V) and Two: before you declare this as a cruel manner in which to teach a cat or any animal for that matter you need to put into mind that a home is shared by both parties and therefore rules should be set. He does not beat , torture, or throw his animal aside as many frustrated owners may commonly do with their pets. He only did it perhaps once or twice to get the point across. Cat's will most definitly land on their feet and he did this without considering the fact that the cat may have stayed on the counter and let out his nature when it was scared. Also, I am a deep animal activist, having been bitten by animals I attempt to protect and beat by those who wish to harm them. What this man has done is a very logical approach to a matter that could turn sickly for the entire houshold. By observing this man's kitchen alone it is believed he would like to keep it clean and a cat comming in from the elements and climbing upon a counter where thirty minutes later he makes his sandwich is not healthy at all.I do not say this without knowledge as well, cats have strong hearts, and as they grow they attempt dangerous things as training toward life. Sure that may have startled the cat but it did no real harm to either it's heart nor it's stimulus. B.T.W cats are smart enough to be able to give the cold shoulder to whoever did play a prank on it.
Google cat carrier if you wanna see cruel
Mind posting the code for the Perl script?
So the readers are going to be surprised to find a problem late at night. You get up, go for a glass of water, and suddenly you are looking for the paper towels so you can start cleaning your own feces off the floor. Then *you* are being conditioned … to approach your kitchen with apprehension, for fear that you'll accidentally set it off again. 🙄
The item you are actually looking for is called "Sticky Tape(tm)". (Seriously, that's the name brand I've used). You put it on the edges of the counter. It sticks to their paws and really annoys the crap out of the cat. You leave it up for a couple of weeks, eventually the cat just gives up trying. Cat never returns to the counter again. Then you take the tape off while the cat isn't nearby. Now your kitchen is totally normal, and your counter is cat-free.
Cost: About $15.
Not as awesome looking in action, but also won't may you wet yourself when you accidentally trigger it. There's something to be said about a training device that doesn't give the owner a heart attack.
Our cat taught itself not to walk on our counters. One day I heard a lot of meowing and jumping around and found the cat on his back licking his paws and spitting like a machine gun. Then I realizes she had walked across our glass top range after the wife had cooked dinner. I could see little paw prints on the glass. She was ok but she NEVER climbed up there again.
The last video is fu***ng GREAT…
I've got two siamese cats… and before adding an opinion about their intelligence, I've also had a pet rock. The pet rock was smarter!!!! The one cat (who used to be the runt of the litter and is now 20 pounds) has a bad habit of placing herself in front of the cat food dish and closing her eyes and gorging. This is of course after nudging her sister out (the 12 pound cat)so that she doesn't get to eat…. and NO I'm not rearranging my lifestyle to 'place another bowl in another area' so the one wimp can eat in peace…. she's doing fine and eats when her sister is away from the dish. We also have the cats on the counter…. but this is the spot where the PIG likes to throw up immediately after she eats. I'm going to use the same principle, but probably test out regular motion detectors instead of optical motion detection. It'll probably involve a small bit of messing with some cardboard and making some barn-doors like you'd use on a studio photography light. If that doesn't work….maybe some well placed muskrat traps would do the job…. I guess it would be harder to jump up on a counter with only three legs in the first place 😆
[b]@Gaitweyman[/b]: Howdy! Might I suggest something? We recently adopted a new puppy and he had the same problem of eating way too fast for his own good. I came across this by chance, but while wandering in the pet store, I found something called a "slow-feed bowl". It basically has an irregular shape and has wells in it that the pet has to work at to get the food out of, instead of just inhaling it, heh… Im not going to endorse any specific brand or anything, but just do a Google search for slow feed bowl and you'll see what I mean. They are really great.
I found this on ebay, CK18A X10 4 Piece FireCracker II Home Automation Kit. It comes with software that does, I THINK, the same thing that the Pearl Script you wrote does. Would this work with a Network Camera & Blender the same way?? If it does, it sure would be a big savings, + pretty simple!!
[b]@Merrill[/b]: Yes, those are the components that I am using; a firecracker, a transceiver, and an appliance module. It wont be a huge savings from what I spent, since you are still using a blender and a network camera… and you are paying for a 4-piece package, instead of the 3 X10 pieces I am using. If you get your software to handle what you want, then awesome… but the cost break-down listed is for everything. Read the paragraph above it too.
😆 lmao funni but only a dummy would try
I really wanted to build this. Our kitten was on the counter every time we turned our back. Sadly, we dont need it anymore because he got his head stuck in the garbage disposal and suffocated. No joke. Had I built this, I would still have the best cat ever. 😥
Conditioning is just a fact for any pet owner. As much as they are our friends they are also our responsibility. As easy as it is to point fingers at the OP call him cruel, accuse him animal cruelty. No one stoped to think maybe he is trying to protect his furry friends through conditioning, as some house plants are VERY poisonous to animals. Sure he can move the plant, but if the cat intends to eat it, trust me, the cat will move to eat it. Whats worse if someone did this to a child, they would probably think it's ok. The fact is animals and people learn from experience. and the cat probably was not hurt at all, if not a bit scared.
Damm was some crazy sh** hahah lol damm cnt wait 2 do sme krazy stuff like dat hahaha LMFAO!!!!!!!!!! 😎 😎
maN I CNT WAIT 2 GO HOME AND DO DAT 2 MY DUMB a$$ CAT HAHAH LOL(: DAAMM CATZ ARE RATARDS BUT WHO CARES HAHAH LOL DAMM TANKS 4 DA ADVISE HAHA LOL 😈
Varjorie let me just say….. no. while yes, an owner should set up a home for a *new* cat or kitten or whatever to make sure they dont harm themselves, disciplining them is also very important. The cat wont break a bone. The cat wont have head trauma. Cats are sturdy creatures that can take some crap. They can jump from a telephone pole to the ground and be perfectly fine. By your way of thinking, "Having a pet requires *you* to set up the home *for* the *pet*. " Then maybe the owner shouldnt have counters to begin with? Just like a person with a dog who gets up on counters, there are certain measures you cant take. one is a motion detecting strobe light with a buzzer. The noise is loud enough to scare a dog off, but cats need more drastic actions since we all know alot of cats just dont give a fuck. You want to see cruel? Watch a Peta video or a gassing chamber in a Japanese pound- you wont ever say anything about this video being cruel ever again. 🙄
I used tape with the sticky side up… cost little to nothing but the cat instantly got a clue when gettin up on a countertop covered with sticky tape. Problem solved.
😎 Great Idea, To keep rabbits out of my garden, I ran a low power high voltage wire around my garden. Worked great, until my dog decided to urinate on it.
WOW !!! He never approached the garden again.
Where do I get a nom-activated teleporting blender (and lightbulb) as seen in Sarah's comic?
The black cat was the funniest. 😆 Our problem is the kitchen table so we keep Clorox wipes out and use them before we use the table for meals. We have a window next to our kitchen table that the cats like to look out of so they perch themselves at the end of the table. They are indoor cats (for safety and health reasons) so I hate to begrudge them the "lookout". It's no trouble for us to clean the table. 🙂 You have a great idea there but I agree with others who cautioned you about forgetting the blender during the night. ;D
This is the best thing I've ever seen. I hate my boyfriends cat's on the counters I'm always having to punish him and nothing is working I've had to start putting him in his kennel when we leave cause he keeps getting on the counters no matter what I do. I have to try this!!
Skinned loose wire fed with a small capacitor work awesome!
I have a cat who will eat kitchen rags (even if they've never touched food) and can open cupboards and will eat garbage. Stick tape did not work. Cans with pennies did not work. Scaring the living bejesus out of him with a "random" blender worked wonders! Thank you for the idea!
This is the best/funniest thing I have seen in my life. 😆
@Janai:"I hate my boyfriends cat's on the counters I'm always having to punish him and nothing is working I've had to start putting him in his kennel when we leave…"
Janai, you might find punishing the cat works better. But then again, I don't know your boyfriend so you may have a point.
Cats need to eat grass–get some and put it where its ok for them to be.
Over-eating: cats need low-carb wet food, not dry kibble which leads to kidney disease later on. Think species-appropriate diet. Cut down on carbs, the vomiting will stop and the litter box won't stink. If your cats is chronically vomiting, something is wrong.
Love it! I did the same thing to keep my cats off the counters. I have a background in electronics so I built my own self contained custom device for like $30. Works wonders! Check it out on my blog. http://www.johndimo.com/2010/11/30/autoblender-cat-repeller-part-2/
@johnb: You're the worst kind of grammar nazi – the kind that makes several grammatical errors when complaining about other people's grammar. If you're going to criticize somebody for making a mistake, it would behoove you to make doubly sure that you, yourself, don't make any. Jackass. I count at least eleven in your moronic comment.
There have officially been 1,000,000 hits to the Blender Defender! wow!
I'm so impressed and ready to battle my infuriating feline child! I've tried yelling, slamming, nothing works until I get up and stomp over to the kitchen. He just looks at me with defiance as he licks the olive oil bottle. Look out my angel cat, I have a blender! Thanks for sharing and making me laugh my butt off. Lucifer is in for a surprise! Game on!
thanks for the inspiration, I implemented this with a DSC-920, FC12, and zoneminder. Only difference i used was a food processor, as a lot of newer blenders don't have mechanical on/off switches – they mostly use soft buttons. My 20 y/o cuisinart foodprocessor works great! it also ways like 10lbs, so there's no way it'll knock over.
I have been planning on setting up X10 in my new place and am interested in this project. Countertops are the only thing my 3 cats get yelled at for and it has been continual for years. I am wondering if it is possible to leave this set up but disable it when there is a human in the kitchen. For instance, could another camera determine there is a larger "animal" in the room and disable the process temporarily?
[b]@Jason:[/b] Theres a few ways of doing this. What we did was use our little X10 keychain remote to 'arm' and 'disarm' the system. (Admittedly I did this after I wrote this page, so theres not really any mention of it in here)
The keychain remote was the best scenario for my usage, but to answer your question, yes, you could use another camera or motion detector somewhere else to detect people. In my opinion, it would be a little wastefull of a camera, but whatever works 😛
Another, easier, way of handing it would be to set everything up on a timer. Assuming you have a set schedule that you leave the house (work, school, etc), then you could just have the system automatically turn on and off.
We need self-contained, battery-operated model to keep cats off of our car at night.
thanks for posting this.
I had a friend tell me two sprinkle some Tabasco sauce on the counter and after walking threw it once are twice they quit getting on the counter.
LOL! Really nice work!!! Well done! 😮
or you could, ya know, just not get cats. Dogs are a lot easier to train.
Hi Plasma,
I posted on your forum before you closed it down, but it looks like it got lost in the spam. 🙁
I was wondering if you would be willing to provide any advice/tips/help to get me started on making this myself? I have the X10 hardware and heyu, but I can't get heyu to work on fedora. Any tips?
Understand that the forums are now closed. We've just bought our X10 supplies, picking them up tonight, and we're grabbing our blender and strobe light in the next few days. Would you be able to share more detailed instructions, such as the Perl script that you used to record the video? We promise not to distribute – this is for personal use only, and your help getting us set up would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
[b]@Theterminator93[/b]: Unfortunately, I havent tried getting heyu working on Fedora, so I'm not really sure what kind of problems would arise, nor how to fix them. A quick google search for "heyu fedora" shows that lots of other people are having problems as well. I'd check out the solutions they found for the various problems. Sorry I couldn't help more 🙁
[b]@Leah[/b]: The actual video recording and motion detection is built into "motion", which is what I used. Install that and read through the configuration file of it and you'll see what to set up 🙂 There's also a place in there to run a certain command when it detected motion, which I told it to run "perl scareCat.pl", and in that file was this:
print "Sleeping for a few seconds…
";
sleep (5);
print "Sending ON command to blender
";
`br –port=/dev/ttyS0 J8 on`;
print "Sleeping…
";
sleep (2);
print "Sending OFF command 4 times
";
print "1…
";
`br –port=/dev/ttyS0 J8 off`;
sleep (1);
print "2…
";
`br –port=/dev/ttyS0 J8 off`;
sleep (1);
print "3…
";
`br –port=/dev/ttyS0 J8 off`;
sleep (1);
print "4…
";
`br –port=/dev/ttyS0 J8 off`;
Thanks Plasma! We got it working last night.
A few notes for others who are interested in setting this up:
– We found the X10 to be rather unreliable, so we sent 5 on commands and 10 off commands… anything less and it didn't work 100% reliably.
– If your kitchen gets a burst of bright sunlight in the morning, you will have to tweak the settings or this will actually trigger the blender.
– It's easy to arm/disarm the system by using "pause" and "unpause". I set a web shortcut to the motion detection on my cell phone.
Thanks for the input Plasma, I'm not very Linux-literate so I did some hunting and found a way to get it to work on Windows. I used iSpy in tandem with a little CM17A controller program I found online. It's a bit slower to respond than I had hoped, but it works! 🙂
A bit harsh if you ask me. Intense fright and terror is too much and very stressful.While removing yourself from the experience is key, this is sadistic. Double sided tape or citrus cent should suffice. Would you like it if someone put a rattle snake or loaded gun in your face every time you made a bad decision?
How do you get your system to discriminate between your cats and you in the kitchen?
[b]@plam4o:[/b] I never got that far… The way we handled it was to just turn the system on (arm it) when we would leave. This worked, since the cats only jumped on the counters when we were gone.
Im still looking for an elegant way to detect the different animals, though 😛