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LOL!

If I may interrupt: I have a cat problem, and would appreciate any advice. I’ve had cats all my life, and never experienced this before; I’m hoping someone may be able to suggest a solution.

At the beginning of the year, we acquired two rescue cats, after losing the last of the three we’d had for almost 20 years.

They are adorable, intelligent, loving; (Well, one of them is adorable; the other is Devil Spawn...but that’s another story.)

The problem I have is that these cats like to chew electronics wires.

I frequently listen to radio through earplugs at night, a bad habit I picked up during a siege of insomnia many years ago. Since January, I’ve lost five sets of earplugs to the kitties - they must ‘sense’ something through the wire, and they come and quickly bite it off at the point where the jack goes into the radio.

I’ve begun buying the cheapest earplugs I can, and covering the wires up with a towel or extra pillow; but occasionally they still manage to move in for the lethal bite.

My husband and I have now decided to get into shortwave listening, and hope to get ham radio licenses. Last night, we found the cats fascinated by the long wire antenna on our new shortwave; I think we saved it just in time. We also recently found one of them about to bite the wire when we were charging a cell phone.

Is there a harmless but deterrent ‘something’, that I can paint or cover the wires with? I know that cats are supposed to hate the smell of vinegar, and I’ve kept past cats from jumping up on certain things by placing little bowls of vinegar there. But I don’t know how I’d do that, near electronic equipment.

Sorry for the length of this, and appreciate any advice.

-JT