I plan my housework around my cat. Nibbler’s two enemies in our home are the ladder and the vacuum. With our 14-foot ceilings and high cabinets, the ladder is a more-frequent foe than you’d imagine.
See, when Nibbler moved in to the condo, we kept her and Odie separated for a while so they could slowly get used to having a sibling. It didn’t really work, they still kind of hate each other… but that’s a story for another post.
For the first month or so, Nibbler lived in the master bedroom. A week after she moved in, my mom and I repainted that room, so Nibbler had to deal with ladders and tarps and general craziness. It took at least a year for her not to run and hide under the bed when you got the ladder out.
She was finally kind of OK with the ladder when I was using it to water a vine we had up on a high shelf and this happened. Nibbler watched that plant fall on me and then shatter into a million pieces on the floor and she knew her first impressions of the ladder were correct. Ladder = BAD.
Now, I’m very aware of where she is and what she’s doing. I time things so she’s not in the room when the ladder or vacuum need to make an appearance.