When I was a kid I remember the next-door neighbour calling her cat in every night. It often took over ten minutes for the cat to arrive. Sometimes the cat was lurking in the bushes but mostly she was out of earshot roaming somewhere on the edge of town.

When activated, the Kitty Pager would make a noise, vibrate, or just briefly smell like kitty-chunks, informing your feline that it is time to return home and be fed.

Obviously you'd be on a hiding to nothing trying to train a cat so this would have to be introduced in the manner of, "Here take this gift of a collar decoration, oh great one and wear it so that we, your humble servants, may better inform you when we have readied your grossly inadequate evening repast."

The cat would still probably stay out all night but at least you can make it bleep every five minutes.
-- st3f, Aug 14 2002

Cat Community Network http://www.halfbake...Community_20Network
Another cat collar mounted idea. [Aristotle, Aug 14 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004]

For waugs http://www.google.c...search=&safe=images
Evidently you haven't lived. [DrCurry, Aug 14 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004]

(?) And if you're still wondering http://www.briggs13...et.co.uk/book/h.htm
"No-win situation" [DrCurry, Aug 14 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004]

(?) Apparently, "screw the pooch" comes from the WWII "f*** the dog" http://www.langa.co...2002/2002-03-21.htm
Scroll down - way down. [DrCurry, Aug 15 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004]

"...you'd be on a hiding to nothing..." I've never heard this expression before. Presume it means something along the lines of attempting the impossible? Exercise in frustration?
-- waugsqueke, Aug 14 2002


Au contraire: easy to train the cat. You just buzz the pager while you're feeding it.
-- DrCurry, Aug 14 2002


one of my cats absolutely REFUSES to wear a collar. she is terrified of the things and will throw a fit of hysteria. only tried it the once.
-- po, Aug 14 2002


Great idea. Would work for dogs, too. My neighbor won't seem to step outside and grab her dogs. She instead seems to think that adding to the dogs' barking with the sound of her attempting to call (yell) them in is the preferred solution. (Obviously, I disagree.)

While we're at it, let's put a few different beeps, smells, vibrations, or whatever stimulus on these collars to help train pets. An uncomfortable sensation for undesirable behavior, a rewarding one for good behavior, and neutral ones for commands like "come home" or whatever.

Come to think of it, the scenario's beginning to resemble a remote-controlled pet. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing just yet...
-- XSarenkaX, Aug 14 2002


The collar would have to resist moisture from Pavlovian mouthwatering.
-- FarmerJohn, Aug 14 2002


I'd prefer kitty collars that behaved like the ones in "The Running Man"
-- Mr Burns, Aug 14 2002


Thcgenius: ..... or "Wedlock" ??

A better Idea would be a small version of the "invisible fence" dog collars which administered an electric shock to the cat when it attempted to leave the owner's property.
-- 8th of 7, Aug 15 2002


I like the idea of a discrete pager, not one of those irritating continuous ones that just keep, bloody, going off...
-- General Washington, Aug 15 2002


OOOoowwwwaAAAoooooowch !
-- 8th of 7, Aug 15 2002


Now 8th you didn't go try out the electrocollar and juice yourself at the EMC lab?
-- FarmerJohn, Aug 15 2002


If a cat doesn't come home for dinner, it is being overfed, surely? Incidentally, I always thought "on a hiding to nothing" was a purely Australian phrase, but it turns out to be common enough in England to make the cliche lists. I think it means that if one thing happens, you dont win anything, and if the other thing happens, you are even worse off. An exercise in futility. Can some 1/2baker explain the origin of "screw the pooch"?
-- pfperry, Aug 15 2002


A cursory trip to Goooooooogle reveals that it's slang used by test-pilots in the '50s. To screw the pooch is to be in an aircraft when it crashes. More widely, it is to fail in a spectacular manner. As to etymology, dunno.
-- angel, Aug 15 2002


(see link)
-- DrCurry, Aug 15 2002



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