Keeping the kittens out of the organ!

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.

Expression pedals on my Saville organ
Expression pedals on my Saville organ. If you look closely you can see the face of a kitten (There was too much sun coming in the window for the picture to be clear)

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.

Kitten coming out of the organ
Kitten coming out of the organ

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!

Kittens on the organ pedals with blanket in the opening
Kittens on the organ pedals with blanket in the opening

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.

board blocking expression pedal opening
Board blocking expression pedal opening

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.

Violet looking out window sitting on organ speaker
Violet looking out window sitting on organ speaker

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?

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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.

10 thoughts on “Keeping the kittens out of the organ!”

  1. 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!

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  2. 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???

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