You Get Off The Counter!

[LittleblackMorgan]

My cats weren’t counter cats.

Until I had to stay at my parents, with the cats, for 7 weeks while I got a new kitchen.

My mother feeds her cats on the counter. They lay on her counter.

GROSS.

So, of course, now my 3 cats think they own the joint. In my beautiful 17 foot run of granite countertops.

I do not feed them on the counter. I do not let them on the counters. I arm myself with the squirt bottle at all times.

But I’ll be damned if they dont wait until I’m not home or out of the room. Leaving evidence of paw prints on my smooth top range, or by plucking the houseplant on the window sill.

Last night I caught my female on the counter licking the butter dish.

EW EW EW.

I am GROSSED OUT. How does one STOP this?? Those scat mats or whatever…17 feet of them sounds a little much. The only thing I have going for me is that they are all hairless so not shedding on the counters…but they will leave an eye booger on something…ewwwwww.

IDEAS?

[paulaedwina]

Get used to it? My cats are all over the counters and I’m not dead yet :lol::lol::lol:.

Paula

[LittleblackMorgan]

I cannot! It’s so GROSS. My pregnancy magnifies the grossness. The poop creeps me out, the eye boogers, the foot prints…the fat one chewing on my BANANAS.

[Simkie]

First of all, put away anything that they want up there. That means the butter goes in the fridge or in a cabinet and the plants get moved.

Then it’s either scat mats or snap traps, either upside down or under paper or both. Or something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Contech-StayAway-Motion-Activated-Pet-Deterrent/dp/B000DZFFN4

[threedogpack]

punishing the cats only teaches them to discriminate.

instead require them to work for their food and use a clicker. Establish a feeding station somewhere else and have them sit there for a few bites of food.

here is a photo of Puzzle doing her station work with two of the dogs. Her station is a cardboard box. She stayed there for about 45 minutes.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1597547630152&set=a.1074637157717.11859.1579830660&type=3&theater

[LittleblackMorgan]

THere is no food left on the counter. Butter dish will be put in a cabinet.

The funny thing is that when I am in the room, I say OFF and they go. Every single night when I get home from work, I see one on the counter. And the paw prints on the stove…

I’m finding myself scrubbing the counters daily!

I would use the packing tape upside down, but I think they will figure out how to leap over it. One guy is very athletic, one is fat (and not a counter guy, unless he has a stool or something) and the female will surf, but she’s pretty voice trained (butter thieving aside).

[BoldChance]

My one border collie has discovered that if he jumps up and stands on the kitchen table, he can see outside (if I’m out and he’s in, which I am if I’m mowing lawn, etc). He then stands there, looking for me, and/or barking at the neighbors when they’re in their yard.

It was suggested I Try laying tin foil strips on the table… I put a sheet of foil out last night. Time will tell if it works.

Might be a cheap thing to try, though! I envy you your kitchen…17 feet of countertop…heaven!

[mvp]

Hehe.

I picture your 1%-er acre of granite countertops being taken over by the 99%, you know, for political reasons. They don’t have jobs to go to, and you do. And they can “leap tall buildings in a single bound.” I can’t jump up 8x times my height, can you? Maybe you should pay the cats more. Or make the Food Stamps that you keep on your counter-- butter and bananas-- less available.

Seriously, folks, a cat’s response to the usual “negative reinforcement” training is to ask when “bad cop” is around.

But! I think you can teach a cat to respect the in absentia dictator. You need some huge “Shock and Awe” policy. Total Blitzkrieg. They need to remember the countertops being a place that they seriously almost died once. And you also need to make the cat’s like you. If they get “good” from you and also know that you almost made them die once, they’ll get some Stockholm Syndrome. That’s a fine thing in pets. Dogs come with it installed. For cats, we have to do the dirty work of putting it in. Not many people have the cajones and skill to convince a cat to bend to the human will.

Best of luck to you. A trained cat is a real accomplishment.

[threedogpack]

if you don’t want to station train them.

Get a large cardboard box, open it so it lays flat, cut to closely fit the counter (and if you leave a flap hanging over the edge, it will be a visible cue for them) and put the packing tape upside down on that.

1. it will be removable and re positionable

2. it will cover the counter.

the packing tape does work, I used it on the kitchen window sill the cats like to sit on and look out. When I put the screens in this year, both cats decided to use the screens for claw sharpening. The sill is narrow tho, and def not 17 feet long.

[meupatdoes]

Mine are impossible. I’ve given up. I don’t know what they find so fascinating since I am a minimalist who can’t stand ANYTHING on the counters, so apparently they just really love the empty elevated surface.

They know enough to scurry when I come in and catch them but there is always evidence when I come home from work.

I just quickly wipe clean the counter before and after each use, as I would whether or not the cats were around anyway.

[LittleblackMorgan]

MVP LOL!!!
3dogpack, I can’t see your pics from here, FB is blocked at the office.

Honestly, its one male above the others. He’s kinda a snot, he’s a super climber and will literally climb ANYTHING. He was not like this before he went to my mothers (meaning, the counters).

My husband is starting to develope a facial tick, seeing the prints everywhere since he worked so hard for the kitchen…

I’m just icked out by the whole thing! I’ll try the tin foil, but that probably wont work (it will until I have to take it down anyways, to USE the counters).

Packing tape MIGHT work, but I’ll be spending a lot of time covering a lot of real estate. The water in the cookie sheet thing WONT work. The cats will stop and drink out of it.

[threedogpack]

“Honestly, its one male above the others. He’s kinda a snot, he’s a super climber and will literally climb ANYTHING. He was not like this before he went to my mothers (meaning, the counters).”

use that! Put a station somewhere that he has to climb to get it! Make sure good things happen on/at the air station!

[LittleblackMorgan]

anyway you can un-facebook those pics? Their feeding area (not a station? is it?) is in the front of the house on the floor. It has to be there. OR the fat one pees.

3 stooges, these cats

[Paddys_Mom]

Do they have somewhere high to climb on, like a cat tree thing?
They like to go up high and survey their domain.
Your struggles to keep them off the counter will be easier if they have a better alternative.

[LittleblackMorgan]

They do not, but we’re getting them one of those 6 foot numbers for the front foyer, where there are floor to ceiling windows (for bird watching).
We had a great big bow window in the front of the room where they would sit and watch the birds and sleep. Got a new flat window, and now they don’t go over there anymore.

We only have one window in the kitchen over the sink, so no bird watching there either.

[mvp]

[QUOTE=LittleblackMorgan;6348278]
The water in the cookie sheet thing WONT work. The cats will stop and drink out of it.[/QUOTE]

Hahaha. I know, I should try harder not to laugh.

But…

[QUOTE=LittleblackMorgan;6348410]They do not, but we’re getting them one of those 6 foot numbers for the front foyer, where there are floor to ceiling windows (for bird watching).
We had a great big bow window in the front of the room where they would sit and watch the birds and sleep. Got a new flat window, and now they don’t go over there anymore. [/QUOTE]

So yer gonna show ‘em whose boss by defacing your foyer with a 6’ indoor cat tree?

Now I am laughing.

If it’s any consolation, my cat seems to give me the stink eye if I haven’t changed my sheets recently. Doesn’t want to sleep in cat hair, y’ see…

[threedogpack]

[QUOTE=LittleblackMorgan;6348330]
anyway you can un-facebook those pics? Their feeding area (not a station? is it?) is in the front of the house on the floor. It has to be there. OR the fat one pees.

3 stooges, these cats[/QUOTE]

can you see this blog post? It has the photos I posted on FB as well as a few more.

http://welcometothisplace.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/saturday-november-20-2010/

if not, how about flickr?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/organize/?start_tab=one_set72157624880212996

the last one in the Puzzle set.

[LittleblackMorgan]

I’m trying to bargain with them (here’s a big ass climby-thingie, stay off my granite!!).

I’m having deep seated fears of the Fat One climbing into the baby’s swing and peeing. Or on the baby’s stuff too. Cat’s aren’t allowed in the bedrooms at all now (the boys think its romper room time when I am sleeping, the female might get smooshed by my belly) so they wont get into the crib.

I think that it’s consolation prizes? Sh*t is going to hit the fan when I bring home baby. The dog will be fine, but that fat cat? He is going to be FURIOUS.
the other male is most likely spending time at my mothers since he bites. At least for a couple months. And she might not willingly give him back (she loves him)

[LittleblackMorgan]

yup saw those pics. I don’t think I have the patience to train mine like you did yours! Wow

[Snowflake]

@LittleblackMorgan;6348613

I’m trying to bargain with them (here’s a big ass climby-thingie, stay off my granite!!).

I’m having deep seated fears of the Fat One climbing into the baby’s swing and peeing. Or on the baby’s stuff too. Cat’s aren’t allowed in the bedrooms at all now (the boys think its romper room time when I am sleeping, the female might get smooshed by my belly) so they wont get into the crib.

I think that it’s consolation prizes? Sh*t is going to hit the fan when I bring home baby. The dog will be fine, but that fat cat? He is going to be FURIOUS.
the other male is most likely spending time at my mothers since he bites. At least for a couple months. And she might not willingly give him back (she loves him)

If you still have your hairless cat and are going to be looking for a home for him, I’ll gladly offer a soft place for him to land. I have a hairless cat named Scarlett and I ADORE her. I have the ability to section off my house from the kitchen and the cat gets the back half and the dogs the front. Gives the cats a quiet place to go without getting into too much trouble.

It’s a shame you don’t have the ability to just keep them out of the kitchen. It’s one of the things I love about the way my house was designed.