Cat on kitchen work surface

[tallyho!]

I don't like cats on food surfaces either but mine are very good and never gone on them anyway.

I do however find myself sitting on the carpet as the cat has taken my place on the sofa!!!!

I can cope with this logic

 

[HashRouge]

Is it just me?

Doesn't anyone else think cats on food surfaces is just gross? I could not abide it. sofa, beds, chairs all fine but the kitchen tops and tables are out of bounds and I think my cats knows that and respects it. She was a stray and did at first jump up but my voice and a ball thrown soon got the message across.

I can't even stand it when I go to my neighbours and watch her cats crawl all over the kitchen, puts me off my coffee tbh. I see where her cats go an all!! Same places as mine!!

Each to their own I suppose...

The problem for my parents is that the kitchen is the room where the cats sleep overnight as it is where the catflap is. The work surfaces aren't a huge draw to either cat, though we do occasionally find one of them up there as he has a habit of sometimes sleeping next to the bread bin. The other one I'm not sure she can jump that high any more (she's 16). The biggest issue is the kitchen table. For whatever reason, it is the preferred bed of both cats. And I really don't think there is any way of stopping them when it is the room they are in overnight if they're not outside. In the end, to keep things a bit tidier, my mum got into the habit of putting two cardboard grocery boxes on the table for the cats to sleep in. I'm afraid that now it's just her and my dad at home, so they don't need the whole table, they do invariably leave one of the boxes on the table at all times, even when eating (obviously the cat box is at one end, they are at the other). The funny thing is, it really does work, because the cat whose box it is, and who is by far the worst culprit for climbing in the table, now doesn't really jump on the table itself, but jumps straight up into his box. I'm sure it gives my mum's best friend a nervous breakdown when she comes round for a brew and finds the cat in his box on the table (she hates cats), but then again what isn't obvious to visitors is that both table and work surfaces are always sprayed with antibacterial spray before food is served or prepared. So long as that happens, I really don't have a problem with cats on tables/ work surfaces.

 

[Tyssandi]

Our cat only goes/fed on one surface and that is the one with the toaster so it is no issue as food is never laid on it. She never goes (out of choice) on the one food is on so we never bother to think there is a problem.
I suppose if your cat actually gets on it while your preparing food then that would be a problem.

 

[cava14una]

That is so cat!! Mean the spitting of the shrew

 

[Cortez]

Our cat is fed on the worktop, next to the cooker; he has the run of the place and rarely alights on the floor. We're not the most hygenic of people (not hoarder level, but antibacterial spray jobbies are unknown in our house), have never had a day's sickness other than the 'flu (caught from VERY antibacterial relatives).

But then, we also have a house chicken.....

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

Oh dear! Cats will go where they please, do what they please unfortunately, and the more they know you don't want them to do something, the dang things will!!

We had a cat who'd perch precariously on the rim of the toilet and manoeuvre herself to drink the water in the toilet bowl......... urrhhh, gross, right? Not helpful when it is a blokey loo and you can depend that the lid is never put down! Solution was to get a smelly toilet block and chuck that in the cistern. Simples!

Flippin' cats!

 

[tallyho!]

To a certain extent I agree that cats can and do just do whatever they like... (I mean I'd had 11 at once many years ago pregnant stray).... until they meet me the wrath of screaming banshee woman is enough to scare most cats.

 

[D66]

To a certain extent I agree that cats can and do just do whatever they like... (I mean I'd had 11 at once many years ago pregnant stray).... until they meet me the wrath of screaming banshee woman is enough to scare most cats.

This ^^^^^, never had a problem with cat on the worktop more than once per cat.

 

[GirlFriday]

Physical baffles: when/if you leave them in the kitchen overnight pop a line of toilet/kitchen roll tubes vertically along the edge they jump up on. Works a treat (although mini cardboard henge can be difficult to explain to visitors too!)

Obviously
- no food out
- high up authorised perches provided (eg those radiator bed things/cushion on chair/whatever)
- bit of shooing off in the daytime so they know it isn't allowed

 

[HufflyPuffly]

Is mine the only one that sneaks behind the washer so she can root around behind the units, and then bust out of the bottom panel as she's broken/chewed the clip that held it to its support?

It's disconcerting when you've not noticed her enter the kitchen and then hear strange noises in an empty room! Lilly likes being the ultimate ninja cat, master of stealth :lol:.

 

[rara007]

Our cat isn't allowed in the kitchen by the dogs (that's dog zone) so don't have that issue. Other than that she does all she likes, she's sometimes fed from the dining room table (humans only eat from it on posh days!). Untrainable!

 

[angelish]

I don't like it either
Sellotape is my friend , both of my cats hate getting sellotape stuck on them so I left double sided sellotape all over the bench top and the dinning room table or anything else I don't want them on and no more hovering the table !
I used to enjoy a bit of "sport" with a super soaker but soon as I left the room they'd be back up there

 

[HashRouge]

I don't like it either
Sellotape is my friend , both of my cats hate getting sellotape stuck on them so I left double sided sellotape all over the bench top and the dinning room table or anything else I don't want them on and no more hovering the table !
I used to enjoy a bit of "sport" with a super soaker but soon as I left the room they'd be back up there

That sounds like such a faff! I'd be getting myself stuck to the tape all the time, never mind the cats, and isn't it a pain to remove it so you can actually use the surfaces?

 

[touchstone]

You need to watch Jackson Galaxy the cat whisperer! He advises against spraying them yourself as they just jump up when you aren't there and it can potentially destroy their trust in you, what does work is one of those motion activated spray deterrents, they associate something unpleasant with the worktop, not you. He has a video for options on Youtube

 

[DW Team]

I don’t like the cats of which we have 4 being on tables of work surfaces so we have a plant water sprayer set on straight jet. Our two new kittens (Darth and Vader both black and very naughty) are learning that if they are caught on the surface they stand to get wet. The first couple of times water aimed at the bottoms works a treat and they have no real idea where or who did it. Now only have to hear the noise the sprayer and they are off. The kittens are both big thieves and will given a chance help them selves to anything going. It also helps with the furniture claw sharpening.

 

[angelish]

Not really once they've been "stuck" a few times they get out of the habit of jumping onto the work top or table so I can do away with the sellotape
I only need to put it there a week or so to remind them it's no go