repellent

Remember I once wrote my thoughts about aromatherapy for cats? Here's more.

You may know about a product in the market known as Ssscat, which when used, prevents cats from jumping on or clawing sofas and countertops, perhaps even window grilles. This is among other ways you can get your cat to avoid these surfaces, apart from some simple housekeeping and cat training.

Many cats are allergic to citrus scents. The only citrus scent I have in my aromatherapy collection is satsuma, or Japanese sweet orange. Recently my tenant gave me a gift, which was an aroma diffuser, and it was lemongrass, which belongs to the citrus family as well. It turns out that I myself am allergic to lemongrass, and so is Slinky, because I saw her eye tearing the next day after I used it in the house, just like mine did. (An unfortunate accident also caused my lemongrass oil to spill on my rosemary plant, thereby almost killing it, but that is another story.)

There are other scents that also belong to the citrus family, such as citronella (the 'mosquito' plant) which is used in Ssscat together with lemongrass, and lemon oil.

I decided to make my own cat repellent by adding a few drops of satsuma oil to my glass detergent, to see if the cats will now totally avoid the coffee table top after I clean it. So far so good, no cat is present on that table!

You can try making your own cat repellent too. Add a few drops of essential oil (lemongrass, orange, lemon, citronella) into your usual detergent used for cleaning your counter tops or table tops. If you don't have any citrus oils, take some orange or lemon peel and add it into water. Then spray on the sofa or whichever.

Remember for use on fabrics to always test your product on a small swatch to make sure it doesn't stain; this is applicable to anything you buy for your own house use.