About a month ago, my 2 kittens discovered they could climb inside of the organ. The kittens, which are about 7 months old now are about the size of full grown cats now. There is an opening big enough for a cat near the expression pedals.

The kittens liked to climb inside a play. They have so much energy! There is divider between the expression pedals and the inner contents of the organ. I still didn’t think it was a good idea for them to be playing in there.
Our 2 oldest cats went into the opening when we brought the Saville home. To prevent them from getting inside I stuffed a fleece blanket into the opening. Eventually, they forgot about it and we no longer needed to use the blanket.

The blanket didn’t work with the kittens. It seemed like it did a first, but then we noticed they would use their paws to move the blanket aside. The little stinkers!

My husband came up with a plan. He cut a piece of wood to size and then clamped it over the expression pedal opening. For the first week or so the kittens tried to move the board. But they seem to be losing interesting. Now when I practice, I remove the board.

We still hear them walking on the pedals sometimes. Clunk, clunk, clunk. I have not captured this on video yet!
Violet, the mother of the kittens, has not tried to enter the organ as far was we know. She much prefers to sit on the organ speakers. Some mornings she will sit on speaker and look out the window for hours.

I’ve added a “The Cats” page if you’d like to read the story of how I came to have 6 cats.
If you have an organ at your home, do you have difficulty keep your cats or other pets out?
Heidi Bender writes about her experiences of learning to play the organ. She started on the adventure in 2009.
She also writes on her website Tons of Thanks, which helps people write thank-you notes. Heidi is also a cat lady who writes at The Joy of Cats.
As if cats needed another place to hide and stress us out worrying about where they are! 😉
Hilarious! Reminds me of a home I visited once in Upstate New York. After an evening of delightful conversation, my hosts asked me to play something on their old electronic organ. I turned it on… sat down… struck the first chord… and jumped to the ceiling as two cats came streaking out of the expression pedals by my feet!
LOL! Dave, your story is quite funny. I can picture those cats coming out!
Had the same problem with my mothers kitten. She is a rescue cat and thought my organ is a grand place to hide.
So glad your mom rescued a cat!
So cute! The little munchkins 🙂 I wish I was allowed to own six cats … hubby only allows the one but we always say if he lets me get another cat, I’ll let him get another organ .. LOL fair deal???
Thanks! I was only allowed to have 3 cats. It took some persistence to be able to have 6. I am not allowed to get another at home organ!
This is a cute and interesting story about your kitties.
Thanks Mary! I appreciate that you read the article!