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The main problem I've ever had with chewed wires is where the l-users have managed to completely tie them around the castor of an office chair in such a way that they've managed to sever them in multiple places and require not just new mice or headsets but at least a temporary replacement for the office chair as one of the wheels would no longer spin (until it got a good talking to with a particular set of angled long-nose pliers, not company issue!)

Icon, 'cos it felt like that's what I was dealing with most of the time!

One of my school friends had ... dunno, some sort of rodent, I think a Chinchilla or whatever they were called. After the first attempt of the foul beast to electrocute itself, cables were protected by a cable channel (with rabbit wire wrapping).

My piano teacher had a rat who liked to climb up onto the piano via the student's legs (but only if they were playing reasonably well, I could tell when I did something wrong by the disappearance of the rat...).

even rats have musical taste.

Similar thing at home. My wife gave music lessons (piano, recorder or violin); if the music was done well our cat would sit around and listen and if not he would leave.

Some friends of mine had Guinea pigs and some tropical fish. They explained how whenever they went away for the weekend a neighbour would stop by and check on their pets. Well one Sunday morning they had a call from the neighbour. Apparently there was a nasty smell in the house, the Guinea pigs were both dead and the tropical fish tank had no light or bubbles. They came straight home and discovered the power cable for the fish tank had separated from the wall it was attached to.

The cable had then swung down to within reach of the cage. Thus the Guinea pigs had found a new toy to play with. They chewed through this cable and killed themselves. Sadly that had blown a fuse or tripped a breaker and the fish had died because they got far too cold.

They described it as the Guinea pigs committing suicide and taking the tropical fish with them.

> Some friends of mine had Guinea pigs and some tropical fish. They explained how whenever they went away for the weekend a neighbour would stop by and check on their pets

I own[*] a corn snake, who's incredibly placid and well behaved, and has given very little trouble over the last decade or so.

Except for the time when I was working down south and got a call from my partner, as said snake was no longer in their vivarium. Cue a long and slightly panic'd drive home, during which I tried to rehearse what to say to the neighbours. Fortunately, she'd only gone a short distance before deciding to curl up under a wash basket!

Then there was the second time a few years later. Which just happened to be the same weekend that I was looking after a friend's gerbil - the first and only[**] time I've ever looked after someone else's pet. Cue another stressful trip home, with visions dancing in my head of a happy looking snake with a gerbil-sized bulge in their belly...

Thankfully that time, she'd just curled up in the shoe cupboard, but I doubt the gerbil was impressed!

[*] passed over from a relative, when their partner started dropping strong hints about not wanting exotic pets in the house...

[**] Certainly, that friend never asked me to look after their gerbil again ;)

I think this is a classic, and rather tragic, case of Worst Case Scenario.

===

I also had a client with guinea pigs with a similar attraction to, thankfully, low-power cabling. When are they going to rename the little blighters Libra Solidus Porcellus?

My cousin used to keep Chinchillas, they seemed to be attracted to any type of network cable even to the extent of climbing a vertical wall to get to them.

The damn things left the easily replaced mouse & keyboard cables alone, just the network cable which went upstairs......

And somehow they knew to not even nibble on mains cables....

The chair caster thing happened to me once with a mouse cable and it was such a pain untangling it that I seriously considered throwing both of them away.

The caster wheels for chairs are easy (and relatively cheap) to replace.

I figured this several months ago whilst battling HR for a chair that could be raised an extra inch to give me a comfortable working position. Unfortunately the monolithic HR department I was dealing with couldn't understand that someone wanted something that had never been asked for before, and which didn't fit their policies.

I had reached the point of reading the UK Gov document on seating at w**k (https://www.hse.gov.uk/pUbns/priced/hsg57.pdf) and listing all of the places where their policy fell short, when I discovered that larger than normal casters were easily available. I decided that rather than having a months long battle with a bunch of useless box-tickers (all while suffering aches and pains from a chair that wasn't high enough) that I'd buy a set of oversize caster and fit them to my chair during the quiet hours.

Looking back now I wonder why I let them off so easily. I think that when I'm back w**king in the orifice I'll bring it up again and see what I can do about forcing them to change their policies.

...for values of "cheap" below $50.

I just purchased 2 sets of 3.5" casters for my newly carpeted home office. Worth the money, as the stock 2" ones were useless of carpet.

Our terrier had a tendency to do that as a pup. BUT, he could always detect a live wire... and grew up to enjoy a destructive old age.

Our TV signal slowly deteriorated over a period of about a week. I suspected a bad joint in the aerial cable, so I used the old cable to pull a new one through. On examination of the old cable, there was a three inch length where it had run through the eaves that was chewed part way through, outer PVC, coaxial copper braid, inner PTFE insulation, and the central copper multi strand core, all half gone. That night, we were lying in bed when we heard a scuffling sound from above the ceiling, so I grabbed a torch, opened the window, and shone the torch up under the eaves. The back half and tail of an enormous rat were protruding from under the roof structure, he was evidently enjoying his first nibble at the new cable. I fetched a long handled duster from the next room, and gave him a good poke up the behind, which caused him to back out into the gutter and disappear down the downspout. Next morning I went up the ladder and installed a mesh baloon grating at the top of the downspout, to prevent him climbing back up again. I pulled the new cable back out again and found that he had destroyed the outer and part of the coax braid over about an inch length, but as the inner PTFE and copper core were unaffected, I left it at that.

In my early days working in IT operations for a regional brewer, I got called out to the Transport department one evening whilst on call.

The big DEC line printer they used for printing all the loading sheets for the dray wagons had stopped working, and they needed it looking at, so off I trotted, opened the hood up on the printer and there, lying across the tops of the massive PSU capacitors was a lightly fried (and very dead) rat!

Seems this one had found a nice looking, warm, dark and cosy space to try building a nest, then regretted it some few seconds later :)

Not quite IT, but involves electrons. Way back in the early 70's in Singapore, my parents had an electric toaster go duff. Opened it up to find a dead lizard ("chit chat"). Nearly all rooms had security grilles and louvred shutters. Lizards had free run.

"Furry animals were henceforth banned from the home office"

No need to get quite that draconian. Bitter Apple spray on the cables stops most inquisitive chewing. Mixing in some hot pepper spray takes care of the rest if they don't get the message.

Bitter Apple can be had at most feed stores, or ask your Vet. Make your own hot pepper spray ... simply throw a couple of the hottest peppers you can find into a blender with just enough white vinegar to allow it to liquefy. Strain through old nylons to remove the bits that might clog the sprayer. Mix about 75% apple, 25% pepper. Unplug, and then spray on wires and allow to dry before plugging back in.

Use the rest of the pepper mix as hot sauce ... might want to add a little salt for flavo(u)r, and a little sugar (honey, maple, Golden Syrup, carrot, whatever ... anything sweet) will mellow it out. Try it on eggs. If the above recipe is beyond your cooking skills, a bottle of Dave's Insanity or the like will do the trick.

Need I say do NOT play with your contacts[0] if you've managed to get the pepper mix on your fingers?

[0] Or anything else for that matter, if you get my drift ...

Thanks. Now I feel rather peckish - but we are out of hot peppers! I'll give that a shot when I have restocked the pantry.

It might also be a nice home made present... (we have an agreement with some friends and family that anything homemade food is ok but not mandatory for birthdays / christmas - the main thing is that you actually turn up in person, which is the biggest present, plus we all have too much stuff already).

Dave's Insanity is seriously, mouth blowingly hot. And I talk as someone with a liking for hot sauces.

I don't think treating anything that a human might handle semi-regularly with chilli oil is a great idea. One cable comes loose, you plug it back in, unthinkingly rub some dust out of your eye... and suddenly you have a real problem.

I did something similar in my uni days. Rubbed the insides of a jalapeno pepper on the door handle of a particularly obnoxious housemate (himself a bit of a prankster). The results weren't quite as funny as I thought they'd be, even with something as mild as a jalapeno.

On another note, both dogs and cats are permitted in my office and no cables get chewed. Allowing rodents free rein is probably asking for it though.

One of our dogs had a liking for electricity cables in addition to all his other chew toys etc. He chewed right through the charger cable to the wife's laptop, luckily without shorting/trashing the transformer, I just had to join the cores back up again. Similarly one day while eating lunch there was a sudden CRACK with a little blue flash followed by a dog yelp - he'd chewed through a live mains cable. We tried some bitter apple spray on other cables, he found it a tasty relish to add to his diet and still managed to chew through a live lamp cable. He's now grown out of the habit. Wish we'd named him Sparky. I'll bear in mind the hot pepper spray if he goes back to his old ways.

Re:-"tasty relish" My mate had a dog who would chew the architrave around the door when he was locked in. To stop this, English mustard was applied to the affected area. Sadly, the mutt liked mustard on his wood...

"English mustard was applied to the affected area. Sadly, the mutt liked mustard on his wood..."

Did they try Dijon?

For architraves, you can't beat a pair of Cockatoos. My PhD supervisor had a pair who had free rein - those lads could and did do serious damage.

I knew a girl like that once

When I first read "He's now grown out of the habit", I thought you mean "permanently" in some way. Glad to hear he's alive and kicking, if not chewing through cables!

Our dog learnt a vital lesson as a young puppy that electrical cables are not to be touched. It was during the night and my wife and I were suddenly woken up by a sudden thump and a howl of terror from our puppy. Seemed she found the cable for my wife's hair dryer hanging down (plug was obviously switched off) and decided to tug on the cable with her teeth - only to suddenly be hit by the hair dryer as it fell off the chest of drawers.

Worked a treat as it happens as she has given mains leads a wide berth ever since!

"Or anything else for that matter"

I'm now flashing back to the evening with the boyfriend who picked the chillis off his pizza then neglected to wash his hands before demonstrating that he knew the location of my clitoris.

My eyes are watering just thinking about it - and I'm a bloke.

A former co-worker would bring for lunch various things he grew in his garden - tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. One day he had a jalapeno. He finished his lunch, used the urinal in the bathroom, and was washing his hands when he suddenly realized his mistake... ow?

To try to deter deer, we once made our own pepper spray. 3 habaneros, finely diced, into an old perfume bottle filled with isopropyl alcohol. Let sit a couple days for the spiciness (capsaicin) to really dissolve well. You don't even have to pull the pieces out of the bottle afterwards. I sprayed just a bit on the railing of our deck, to see if I could smell it, and accidentally caught a whiff of the pepper-laden IPA vapor. Ugh. Good stuff.

One of my old cats liked to chew on network cables as well as the occasional USB charging cable. Her teeth were OK as she happily ate kibbles, so I guess she just liked the taste of them. Never any marks on power cables though so maybe she'd learnt to leave them alone with her previous owner.

Mentioned this to the chap behind the counter when I was stocking up on unchewed cables one day and he said 'yeah, you're not the first customer to say that'.

I've had keyboard and mouse (trackball actually - a Microsoft Trackball Explorer iirc*) cables chewed by inquisitive felines before hand. Normally not 'that' deep - but in one or two instances deep enough that the cable had to be 'folded and pinched' to restore connectivity.

* Fabulous bit of kit, Microsofts peripheral hardware was always far far better produced than it's software.

I moved to a cordless mouse for that reason. Too much 'help' in the home office.

I used to look after the computers at an Irish Travellers' community centre. I was used to crawling under desks in unsavoury places, but this took the unsavouriness to a new level and the presence of mouse-droppings made me pretty careful to avoid hand-face contact (even in pre-covid days).

One day I heard a lot of rustling from inside the swing-lid bin (well, it would have been swing-lid, if it had had a lid) and I pointed out that there might be a mouse in there. The staff called in Paul, who was a very camp, gay man who couldn't come out due to the fact that the Irish Travelling fraternity would probably have killed him (let's hope thngs are better these days, but I fear they might not be). Paul brought a broom and used the top of the handle to crush the captive mouse - I had envisaged a quick release outside the building, I'm kind like that. He then sat in the seat I had just vacated (remember all that seat-hopping in a room full of PCs?) and wriggled himself down while saying, "Mmmmm, you've a hot arse".

Iss no a rat, iss a chhamster!

Are you allowed to post Fawlty Towers quotes any more without a trigger warning?

(And DON'T mention the war in any replies)

I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it...

Laptop power cable chewed by parrot.

Rat skeleton behind bookcase when installing phone cabling; customer response "ah, that's what the smell was last summer"

Cat knocking book off shelf onto laptop; smashed screen & ruined keyboard. This was when basic laptops started to drop below £1000, so quite a pricey cat toy.

Spiders clogging up the inside of computers; had to remember to wipe away the cobwebs before installing expansion cards.

Puppy chewing network cable under desk.

Usual rats chewing Cat5 in the most inaccessible places - made more inaccessible by the amount of droppings left behind.

And most recently... triggering mouse traps while installing cabling near electrical switchgear. Certainly made me jump!

I may have been in this game too long.

I have a cat in my office for most of the day, so the only furry rodents I get are the dead ones she brings in as a present for me and leaves on the floor. I think she reckons I need feeding up.

Mine don't perceive rodents as food, so they don't generally bring me dead ones.

They bring me ones that are still alive enough to play with.

I'm fairly sure I have two mice living behind one of my bookcases even now :(

Been there .... had that! Ours was living in the inaccessible bits of the kitchen cabinets. It finally got fried when it decided to explorer the washing machine.

When I was very young we had both a cat and a dog. One of them brought a young, live rabbit into the house. While everyone was chasing round trying to catch it the other arrived with another.

My pair have a tendency to munch their heads off first. Or in the case of squirrels, the head and body as far as the tail.

When my family moved into a house in London, the previous occupants had kept birds in a large aviary at the bottom of the garden. Our cat, Mickey (long story) was extremely interested in the aviary, running back and forth across the wire mesh front, so we opened the door and let him in. We didn't see him for three days, but every morning there was a line of dead mice on the concrete slabs outside the back door, all lying with their heads pointing towards the door. Eleven on the first morning, seven the second morning, and three the third. Mickey later strolled into the house with a smug look on his face, we don't know how many of the mice didn't make it to the line-ups but were neatly stored away inside his belly.

Chewing on the cable?

Yeah. Gave me Bluetooth.

I did once have a customer who presented me with a broken laptop. The screen was smashed, and the keyboard had a fist-shaped dent in it. It was clear that someone had punched the thing, and probably thrown it. It was their son's. The same son who had accidentally violently thrown his tower PC's keyboard across the room, destroying its USB port, the year before. I asked what happened to it and she replied, with no hint that it sounded absolute bollocks: "Oh it was sitting closed and turned off on that table, and the cat jumped onto it".

I love hearing excuses for broken kit. I had a lecturer when I worked at a university some time back who brought in a PC from home (university machine, used for "home working"). The front of the case had a big dent, the plastic lip above the drive-bays was broken and it looked as if someone had hit the top of the case repeatedly with a hammer (numerous deep, circular dents).

Without flinching, the lecturer explained that he was having his carpet replaced, the carpet guys had picked up the PC, only for the top lip to break, so the PC fell and landed upside-down in their toolbox. Then when he was driving in that morning with the PC in the car, some idiot had pulled out in-front of him, so he'd slammed on the brakes and the PC had shot forwards in the boot and this explained the huge dent in the front.

It took all my self restraint to keep a straight face...

Maybe she found believing it easier than not believing it and that might have been part of her problem.

My wife tells me that when she was young, she had (musical) keyboard lessons inflicted on her regularly* She got fed up with them, so cut the power cable with a convenient pair of scissors**, then blamed it on the cat. Her Mum believed her, and lessons were cancelled, but when her Dad found out, he looked at the cable and pointed out that cats do not, as a rule, cleanly bite through a wire. Oops!

*I suspect they were also inflicted on the teacher, but at least they were paid for it!

**How some form of electric shock was avoided is beyond me.

Icon: Obviously Paris is not quite as good looking....

Some people unplug devices before cutting the cable.