by Michael
(London, UK)
Look, to be honest, I just don’t get this idea of keeping cats off counters. But, I respect the views of others so I would really like to understand why people like Laurel Wilson (Fairfield, USA) uses some fancy if not irritating methods to keep cats off counters.
She strings empty beer cans together and puts them on counter tops. You put the line of empty beer cans about 6 inches from the side (I presume that means from the edge of the counter) so the cat can’t see them before jumping up.
When and if the car jumps onto the counter he or she knocks the cans off and they make an awful noise. This deters the cat from doing it again and startles the human! Ingenious and a nice use of empty beer cans but who wants empty beer cans in a line on the counter in the kitchen? They have to be there for a long time.
I feel that there is no real risk to us when a cat jumps on the counter. I also feel that there is a kind of paranoia about disease and illnesses transmitted by the domestic cat in some households. There really is no risk that requires that kind of extreme action on our behalf.
God..in the past I have fed three cats on the kitchen counter and I am alive to tell the tail..err tale.
Perhaps people are thinking of toxoplasmosis. Lots of fiction or exaggeration is written about this disease. The greater problem is us and our kitchen hygiene and handling of raw food.
Other than that I don’t see any issue with a cat walking along a kitchen counter but perhaps I am missing something.
I’d like to hear the ideas of others. I remember seeing a video made by Elisa of a hoard of cats eating on the counter! I have forgotten where it is. Obviously we think alike if my memory is correct.
If the sight of a cat on a counter bugs you, you simply have to create no reason for the cat to be there. If the cat food is on the floor the cat won’t bother to jump up. If there is no human food on the counter, that is attractive to a cat, there will be no need for a cat to jump up etc.
I’d like to hear one or two thoughts from others though…
I love my long haired Norwegian Forest cat, named Ricky Ricardo,l but I don’t like him on my kitchen counters or table where we eat. My reason is that he digs in his litter box and could leave all sorts of ‘nasties’ where he walks. I simply put him down and say NO, and he rarely jumps up there. He’s my sweetheart!
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That sounds OK. I wonder if humans leave more nasties on counters and other places than cats or at least leave the same number. We don’t see nasties. People forget how people transmit disease.
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I had very few hard and fast rules for my cats when they were growing up except not chewing on wires and not going up on the kitchen counters. Both of these rules were to protect my cats from harm. The no counter top rule came after I found one of my cats curled up in a wok on the stove! Since then they were not allowed to go on a counter near the stove.
I teach people how to train their cats through positive re-enforcement. If you catch your cat on the counter you can startle it by dropping keys on the floor. If it doesn’t get down: say nothing, do not make eye contact, gently put the cat on the floor and turn your back on it, do not walk away. Deliberately ignoring a cat shows your displeasure. After the cat has been on the floor for a minute or when you are in the kitchen and the cat is not on the counter give lots of praise and pets. This training method works for other behaviours as well and with patience works to make both cat and human happier.
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Thanks Tara for your advice. I like the reason for not allowing a cat on the counter (for cat safety) and the training which is gentle.
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