cats and counters!

[izzy]

My SIL had a friend who swore that her cat never got up on her countertops. One day she decided to set up a videocamera, just to see what the cat did while they were away. Yep, the cat was right up on the counter!

I never could keep two of my cats off of the counter. One of them loved water so much that she would jump up on the counter, walk over to the sink and sit inside of it, and then wait for me to turn on the faucet just to the drip stage so that she could 1) have a snort of water, and 2), then play with the dripping water and fling it all over the place.

I had to put my sweet baby down 6 weeks ago, and I still miss this ritual.

 

[Princess Dolly]

Dolly is smart enough not to jump on the counter when DH and/or I are home. I am smart enough to know she's doing it when we are out. Cats! Good thing they are cute.

izzy, I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[Shmily1]

Wow! I wish I knew. DH hates the cats are in the house and hates that they are on the counters. I have some that wouldn't dream of being on the counters and some that only go there if I'm close by and they want rubbing and some that think the counters were built just for them to rest on.

I also have some that love to be near water and want to drink out of a faucet. I actually leave the one in the big tub dripping so they can do that. Prozac, our Turkish Van cat loves water the most and will even drink from a cup.

We had one that wouldn't leave the kitchen. Come to find out, another of the cats was jumping on her when she stepped foot out of the kitchen so she just stayed right there. She just got tired of getting her behind kicked for trying to be in the living room.

Mackey's mom, I have Tux and Tux Jr that look like your first cat. They are such a mess. Tux wants to be loved on and Tux Jr is scared of humans. I guess it could be the fact that one of the humans is only 3 and quite loud.

 

[wdwmom2]

I have 2 cats that as soon as you turn your back, they are on the counter. Especially after we eat. It's not like there is food sitting there for them to get, they just want to inspect anything we may have put in the sink.

I absolutely hate that they do that, and have done pretty much everything to discourage them, but they are VERY persistent.

They are ages 14 and 15, I don't think they will change their ways any time soon. I just clean my counters frequently.

I have had cats in the past who never surfed the counters. But these two are masters at it

 

[Muushka]

To be honest, I am surprised at the number of people who allow their cats to do this!

Just don't do what my neighbor did.

She was hosting a bridal. She walked into the dining room, looked at the table with all the food on it
and screamed at the top of her lungs "Get away from that food!! Darn cats!!!"
Needless to say, she had LOTS of food left over!

 

[kamik86]

The short version is you need to find something your cat doesn't like. For some this is water, some cats think water is cool. The one I had that liked water hated those canned air things that are for clearing dust out of your keyboard and really strong smells especially my husbands deodorant. So those worked as good punishments for him.

As for the kitty that stays in the kitchen... Why is that a problem? I hate one that loves it upstairs. She comes down once in a while to explore and she will come down to eat but most of the time hangs out upstairs. She also hides under the bed alot... but we discovered part of that is that since the new house has forced hot air and one of the vents are under the bed there is an awesome pocket of warm air there so she has a comfy spot that no one bothers her and is really warm... so I'm not surprised she won't leave.

 

[Mokat76]

Mine too. SSSSSSSSSSS noises don't work. In fact we haven't found any noise that keeps my one cat off of the table or counters. Sometimes it sounds like Satan is in the house with the noises coming from my mother trying to get the darn cat off of things.[/QUOTE]

 

[MichelleVW]

To be honest, I am surprised at the number of people who allow their cats to do this!

Just don't do what my neighbor did.

She was hosting a bridal. She walked into the dining room, looked at the table with all the food on it
and screamed at the top of her lungs "Get away from that food!! Darn cats!!!"
Needless to say, she had LOTS of food left over!

Lol...doesn't matter if you "allow" it or not. If you don't want cats on the counter you either have to keep them out of the kitchen while you're not home or just accept the fact that they get up there. No, I don't want cats near my food, and if they jump up on the side of the counter where I cook, or on the island I get them down, but no way could I be 100% sure they don't get up there when I'm not looking. So rather than stress about it, I just clean up the counters before I eat.

Now if I had a party and had food out the cats would be put up in the bedroom because that is just gross.

 

[SaraJayne]

No cats on any counter/table in our house. At least while we are home.

We have a long peninsula with chairs in front of it and she will sit on the chair and "help" me cook. That is as close as she's allowed.

 

[Muushka]

Lol...doesn't matter if you "allow" it or not. If you don't want cats on the counter you either have to keep them out of the kitchen while you're not home or just accept the fact that they get up there. No, I don't want cats near my food, and if they jump up on the side of the counter where I cook, or on the island I get them down, but no way could I be 100% sure they don't get up there when I'm not looking. So rather than stress about it, I just clean up the counters before I eat.

Now if I had a party and had food out the cats would be put up in the bedroom because that is just gross.

I have left cat food on the counter that I meant to put in their bowl. Left the house.
Cat food still on the counter when I got home.

I have no idea if they went on the counters when I wasn't home, but it sure didn't seem like it.
I guess my cats understand what "not allowed" means!

 

[crazyme5kids]

I have left cat food on the counter that I meant to put in their bowl. Left the house.
Cat food still on the counter when I got home.

I have no idea if they went on the counters when I wasn't home, but it sure didn't seem like it.
I guess my cats understand what "not allowed" means!

Well my one cat understands what "not allowed" means, but not my other one. He could sit on a firecracker that explodes, and once the smoke clears he would go sit on another one. He is the only cat I have ever owned that doesn't give a crap what is allowed and isn't.

I do love him, even though he's rotten to the core .

 

[Stitchfans]

I gave up. Honestly I don't care anymore. I put them down if I see them up there, but I just clean the counters before I eat.

Me too. I'd be spending my whole life scolding and putting them down on the floor. Since I have 4 indoor cats I let two eat on the counter while the other two eat on the floor. Kind of stops stealing of food this way. Usually that is the only time any of them go on the counter is when it is time to eat.

 

[izzy]

Well my one cat understands what "not allowed" means, but not my other one. He could sit on a firecracker that explodes, and once the smoke clears he would go sit on another one. He is the only cat I have ever owned that doesn't give a crap what is allowed and isn't.
I do love him, even though he's rotten to the core .

Thank you for my laugh of the day!! I had one like this, too. I tried stopping him jumping on the counter by squirting him with a water bottle every time he did it. (Well, OK, it was a mister bottle, but it was still water.) He'd see it coming, squint his eyes shut, take a full on shot in the face, and then jump off of the counter. Once on the floor he'd shake the water off of his face and then proceed to hop right back up on the counter. After a month of this I finally gave up.

 

[muffyn]

This looks amazing!!! I am having the biggest problem keeping my cat out of the wires behind my TV. I resorted to slapping Tiger Balm all over the back of my TV stand, as the internet told me cats hate the smell. While my cat does hate the smell (and makes the best face at it), it goes away and I have to reapply it. I wonder if I can make this fit back behind there??

I called them once about "curving it" since it was too long for where my fridge was, & was told as long as you didn't fold it or overlap it it was fine.

did you see the different sizes? they have some smaller widths , like for window sills.

It is pretty clear. just enough for the animal to see it..

 

[pixiewings71]

Well, we found Tigger when he was 4 weeks old (no Momma cat around) so we fed him on the table, otherwise the other 2 cats or the dog would steal his food, plus he was so tiny that we could just put him up there, feed him from his little bowl and then wait for him to finish. lol Now he's fully grown but when he's ready for his noms he jumps on the table to let us know. lol He doesn't get on the counters, just the table, and we make sure we wash it before we eat there.

 

[tinkerbellfan6880]

We have the same problem with our cats too. Our male cat Kitt will just jump off the counter or tables when we yell get off. But our other female cat Cupcake will just look at you like she has no idea of what we are yelling at her for. She just sits on the counter and never moves until one of us has to move her.

Even my mother yelling at her to get off the counter doesn't work. There have been times when both cats have jumped on top of the counter right in front of my mother and ignore my mother yelling at them. Though there was the time Kitt jumped on the counter and my mother yelled at him to get off. He kinda slid from one side of the counter to the other side and fell off the counter.

 

[KAMLEM]

I tried putting coins in a soda can and shaking them whenever mine jumped on the counter. At first he would run away, now he just comes over to me and rubs against the can. I have no idea what's going on in his mind.

 

[Cinderella94]

We can't keep ours off either. But they know they're not supposed to, because as soon as they see us walking over they look guilty and jump off .

 

[Lanshark]

I simply explain to them that I would prefer if they did not jump on the counter, knock the ornaments off of my tree, stand in their water bowl and play in the water so that the next human that walks through the kitchen will slip and fall and eat the poor dog's food. Once you reason with them and let them know exactly what you expect they will of course comply because they are cats. On the odd occasion when they decide to ignore my wishes I tell them how disappointed I am and that next time I hope they make a better choice.

 

[Muushka]

I simply explain to them that I would prefer if they did not jump on the counter, knock the ornaments off of my tree, stand in their water bowl and play in the water so that the next human that walks through the kitchen will slip and fall and eat the poor dog's food. Once you reason with them and let them know exactly what you expect they will of course comply because they are cats. On the odd occasion when they decide to ignore my wishes I tell them how disappointed I am and that next time I hope they make a better choice.

My cat has a very bad habit (nothing to do with counters) that I have sat down and explained why it upsets me when she does this. Sadly, she turns her head and ignores me.