Cats on Kitchen Counters

[Sannois]

[QUOTE=nhwr;7925275]
I recently moved back to a home that I had rented out to people with cats. The house is small, 2 bedrooms 2 baths maybe 1400 sq ft. The tenants had 6 cats who were obviously allowed everywhere except outside. There was about 2 inches of cat hair matted into the carpets where the beds had been, a level of kitty litter dust on every surface in the bathroom where the litters boxes were and the grout in the kitchen that had been white, was a medium brown, there was cat hair stuck to the walls. It took 4 large bottles of KABOOM with bleach to clean the small kitchen before I’d cook in it. I am not a neat freak and I am an animal lover. I have 2 horses and 2 dogs. But it will be a while before I think about getting a cat again.[/QUOTE]

There is no excuse for that. I have had five cats, and people would comment they had no idea I even had cats. The people were slobs!!!
That amount of hair can only come from vacuuming hardly ever! ICK!

[suz]

While I never allow cats on the counters I also never place raw food on my counters–YUK!
That’s why god made cutting boards dude!

[kristinq]

My timid little calico stays away from the kitchen because she knows that’s where the sink is which is where she was given a bath FOUR years ago. Funny the things they remember. However, she is not interested in people food and has no other reason to go in there. (Seriously, what is up with that? She won’t even eat canned tuna!)

My parents 10 y/o tomcat goes anywhere and everywhere he pleases but is considerate enough to wait until everyone is peacefully asleep before knocking everything onto the floor :rolleyes:

[cloudy18]

I didn’t know it was an option to not have cats on countertops, other than having the option to not get a cat in the first place. Someone please tell Elmo to stay off of them. Although now I’m wondering if giving him a bath might keep him away??

I haven’t caught Ziggy on them for a long time, and he was only interested in looking out a window. He was removed from window ledge and maybe that’s all it took.

Elmo is a d!ck, and while not allowed on them, is on them at night, when we are gone, and while we are in other rooms. Ssscat did not work because we were sprayed by it just as often, and it got expensive to replace. We had child-proof locks on the old cabinets because he gets into anything with food. In fact, I forgot to roll out the Scat Mat, so he’s probably eating my bread right now. We have new cabinets with no locks. We usually only put out the Scat Mat at night, because that’s when he seems to prowl around more. Must nap while we work during the day.

He has destroyed bread, bags of chips, anything he can get his paws on. We can’t leave anything food related on the counter. So no, cats are not allowed on countertops or table in our presence, but Elmo waits until we are busy elsewhere.

I don’t typically prep food directly on the countertop either, and it gets disinfected when prepping food-usually. It is a gross thought, paws in the litter box, but I try not to think about it and just wipe it down if I’m doing more than microwaving oatmeal.

For those that are going through tons of wipes, maybe you should look into the Norwex Enviro cloth. It’s supposed to clean/disinfect with just water. I’m sure there are doubts as to how well it works, but I also read something that said the Lysol type wipes end up just saying a good deal of gems around too. I guess the key is to build up a good immunity.

[evenstar]

I don’t allow my cats on the kitchen counter, either. I train them as kittens that the counter is a VERY BAD PLACE and the lesson sticks (think John Lyons 3 seconds of hell, except it’s more like 30 seconds where they just know the world is ending - all verbal of course, I could never actually do anything physically to delicate little kitten bottoms - gosh, that would be awful. And nothing else they might do even comes close to receiving that kind of negative attention). For the female kitties I’ve had, one encounter has been enough. For my boy kitty, it took a follow up of an intervening elbow as he was trying to jump up as I was washing dishes that basically just made him fall back a bit awkwardly but after that he never tried again. Of course the key is to catch it the very first time they decide to jump up to the counter.

So I can actually leave food on the counter while preparing dinner etc. I also can leave casseroles and the like on the counter until I get around to putting them in the fridge. Interestingly, this extends to the stove top, since it’s kind of an extension of the counter (same level, etc).

However, my kitties can and do jump up onto the kitchen table, and I don’t care. They are free to do that. I seldom use the kitchen table for eating or for food prep. They have all known the difference, even though the surfaces are close to the same height. My kitty now will often watch me wash dishes from his perch on the kitchen table.

I notice that as they get older they are less inclined to try to jump up all the way from the floor, anyway. For the kitchen table, my current kitty (age 14) will first hop up into a chair. So I make sure there aren’t any steps nearby to the counter to make it easy.

Kitties are totally trainable if you start with the rules when they are kittens and are very consistent.

[Sannois]

[QUOTE=suz;7925514]
While I never allow cats on the counters I also never place raw food on my counters–YUK!
That’s why god made cutting boards dude![/QUOTE]

Exactly right suz Have only ever used a cutting board!

[RS]

Ok, I think maybe you all are just more motivated than I am! :lol:

Based on the other thread, I didn’t imagine this many people had put time into training their cats. I would also like to use the excuse that I never put food directly on the countertop (cutting boards etc), but perhaps now I’m thinking I was just too lazy and tired to train my cat when I first adopted him…

[lilitiger2]

Fine with cats on the counter!
ANd yes, I do know where my kitty feet have been and those little feet are on my pillow,my couch, my desk, etc. I do wipe down with clorox but I would anyway. With dogs and cats and horses, i’m sure our house does stink from time to time. But, people keep asking to come over, ask to stay with us, people seem to like our dinner parties when we have them, and so on, so I guess it can’t be that bad. We don’t care anyway!!

[Mango20]

Sorry, but cats on the counter really grosses me out. I just think of those litter box feet walking around up there.
It’s not like my house is all that clean, and I always use cutting boards, but still…
I guess that’s why I only have barn cats.

[sunridge1]

I have a simple solution. If you don’t EVER want cat paws on the counter, stove, top of the refrigerator, batting at your toaster etc. etc. don’t have cats. Those that say you don’t allow cats on your counter? They are/have been on your counter.
I once didn’t allow it even while knowing they were when I wasn’t looking. Now not so much, after having to feed a geriatric cat on the counter to make sure she ate everything. I lost the battle and then never cared again.

[mvp]

[QUOTE=RS;7925607]
Ok, I think maybe you all are just more motivated than I am! :lol:

Based on the other thread, I didn’t imagine this many people had put time into training their cats. I would also like to use the excuse that I never put food directly on the countertop (cutting boards etc), but perhaps now I’m thinking I was just too lazy and tired to train my cat when I first adopted him…[/QUOTE]

Well, I consider myself lazy. I don’t think of myself as putting excessive time into training a cat. Perhaps that’s because I consider the task of Reshaping a Cat to be akin to a sport or martial art or a form of high art.

I’m like a Cat Mind Sculptor. It’s really satisfying. Or at least, it’s way better than being victimized by the thoughts of grubby cat paws and raw chicken and microbes and such.

Also, I pride myself on carrying an immune system with me, you know, for emergencies. It’s like Dirty Cat Armor.

[cloudy18]

I’m with sunridge. I’m betting many of those trained cats have been on the counter. And I dare you to try to train Elmo. He knows when the Scat Mat isn’t up there. He’d know when the mouse traps are absent. He’s not stupid, and he knows we can’t be 100% vigilant, and he’s also determined to be up there; to look for food and because I think he’s just bored and too smart, and also I suspect because he’s a total d!ck and just likes to prove that he will do as he damn well pleases. You could go ape crazy on him, and he’d run and hide and come back in ten minutes. I think he’s more inclined to be up there just because he knows it’s annoying to us. And because he might find bread, and he has a carb addiction.

This is the cat that found the fish my son brought home after a session on taxidermy in school. It was a sad example of taxidermy work. Elmo ate it’s face off.

[cowboymom]

I DO think a cat can be trained to stay off the counter in front of the human. I think cats are entirely smart enough and devious enough to just wait for the human to go to work or sleep to check out the counter tops. :lol:

[Eleanor]

Well I think training cats are like training men. They will do as they want when no one is looking.

I am sure my cat goes where ever he wants when no one is around ,just like I am sure the men in the house drink out of the milk/juice cartons when I am not looking.

[cloudy18]

Yes and yes to the previous two posts!

[kathy_s]

Blech, no way no how. We have 3 cats, all rescues and they learn very quickly that kitchen counters, antiques, and tables are off limits…or else.

[Rudy]

I don’t simply ‘let’ the cat on the counter…he lets himself while daring me to stop him.

His very life is threatened daily and has been since I got him as a wee kitten 4 years ago. I think he is curious about what I will try each time. He will climb on the counter and mock me…daring me to do something about his little paw prints all over the clean surface.

Then he will let me know, at great length I might add, just how uncivilized it is for a cat to be kept off a counter by his yowling through the apartment with his arrogant tail accentuating his points.

.

[cloudyandcallie]

I don’t like the idea of keeping cats outside, unless they are put in a yard with the cat guards on fences. Otherwise they get out, kill song birds, and are themselves killed in traffic or by dogs or humans, etc. I grew up with my father feeding his bird dogs at the table. As my father said, “humans have more germs in their mouths than animals do.” So as I grew up my cats moved inside and ate with the humans and dogs. I know where the mouths of my dogs and cats have been but my question is always “do you know where a guy’s mouth has been?”:lol: No one ever got sick eating the great food that my father bought and my mother cooked over all the decades. Again, my father said if we knew what goes on in most restaurant kitchens, we’d not eat at most restaurants. (At Johnny Harris restaurant, the kitchen is open to viewing and always has been, so we ate there once a week when I was growing up.)

I don’t have a problem with people who don’t let their pets walk on counters or eat on tables. It never stopped anyone for eating with me. In fact, in Atlanta, my aussies were appalled at the table manners of some of the guys I dated. My dogs and cats have always been raised with great table manners. Cats, like dogs, can be trained to stay off of things.

[clanter]

dogs are crate trained, so is cat… none on the counters as I do not infringe on their food as they eat either

[TBROCKS]

I don’t “allow” mine on the counters or table, but let’s face it, they’re going to go where they please - they’re cats.
Our big huge tabby brazenly popped up on the table as DH was eating his pancakes the other morning. I don’t think that’ll happen again anytime soon. :lol: