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How Can I Keep My Cat Off The Table & Kitchen Counters?
Rachael Emerson

Keeping a cat off the counters can be a challenge. Cats are innately curious, and counters offer many choice items that reinforce a feline's desire to explore.

There are a few simple ways to keep your cat in line and on the floor. First, owners must realize that cats don't understand punishment the way we do. If you yell at your cat, most likely he will only learn to do whatever bad thing he was doing when you're not around.

Keep your counters clean! That cereal bowl from breakfast sitting on the counter will only encourage your cat to jump up and look for treats. Before any training can begin, get all the goodies out of reach.

Next, get a squirt gun. Squirt guns are the premier cat-training tool. Because you can shoot from a distance, most cats won't associate this sort of punishment with an owner. When you catch your cat on the table, give her a squirt on two with the water gun. She should quickly learn to stay down on the ground.

If the squirt gun isn't enough to keep your cat grounded, try booby-trapping your counter. There are a few ways to go about doing this.

One method is to make some shake cans. Take a few empty soda cans and put a few pennies in them. Tape over the hole in the top of the can. Next, place some cans all around the edge of your counter. When your cat jumps up, she should knock the cans all over the place. Most cats aren't very fond of loud noises. Cans full of pennies crashing to the ground is usually enough deterrent to keep your cat away from high places for a while.

Upside down mousetraps are another way to make the counters undesirable to your feline companion. Of course, make sure they're upside down! When your cat jumps up into the middle of the upside down mousetraps, they should snap shut and scare him back down to the floor.

Another method is to cover the table or counter with something that cats don't like. Cats have a fairly long list of things they could do without, and right on the top of that list is double-sided sticky tape. Check to make sure it won't hurt the surface first, then run strips of this tape across your table. One jaunt across the sticky stuff should keep your cat grounded for a while. Covering a counter with plastic or tin foil should also do the trick.

In all of these methods, consistency is the primary ingredient. Don't just try to teach your cat to stay off the dining room table when you have people over for dinner. He could care less about dinner guests, and will just wonder why you're pushing him out of his favorite nap site. 

If you want your cat to stay on the floor, make rules that he needs to follow all the time. Once cats know the rules, most are willing to follow them to keep up the illusion that their owner is still in charge of the house.

Written by Rachael Emerson

 

I'm A Good Kitty
By: Alfred

Hi, I'm one of your furry feline friends on the Net. I'm a big, almost all black American Shorthair, with just a small patch of white under my chin.

I'm a good kitty too!

My favorite things to do are:

Sleep
Nap
Eat
Play with my toys
Sleep
Nap
Eat
Bother my human friends
Keep unwanted visitors like mice from the barnyard.

Actually, I've got life kicked.

Who else do you know that can sleep up to 2/3's of the day, get up and eat, then play for awhile, then go take a nap and get away with it?

I also go outside and make all these cat noises and prowl around...I do this to make my human friends think I'm really needed and important around here.

My human friends, Dave & Janet are pretty cool guys. They brush me whenever I want and keep my litter box clean, and most importantly, feed me a really Delicious and scrumptious tasting food.

And...they give me lots of great treats. Yum Yummy Yum!!!

And hey, I deserve it. I keep the whole farm running in good shape and the house from being infested with mice.

Course, sometimes I have to show that dog...Tippy...who's really boss, but that's okay. Tippy is pretty neat for a dog.

Don't let anyone fool you, I'm the King around here.

Dave, Janet, & Tippy know it and I get away with whatever I want. I sleep where I want and when I want and make Dave buy me the highest quality food he can find.

You wanna know why?

It's really simple. I have a good friend, Dr. Jane Bicks. She's a really swell person and just loves cats!

Anyway Dr. Jane told Dave that in order for me to look and feel my best and to live the longest life possible, I need a really good quality food. A food that has meat proteins in it... not corn.

Now just think about that for one minute.

Did you ever see a cat go out and bring back to the house an ear of corn?

What do they bring back?

Mice, chipmunks, rodents.....all meat.

Get that?

Cats are carnivores. Cats need meat proteins.

Something Dr. Jane told Dave was that us felines cannot manufacture proteins in our livers like humans and dogs can.

We need, daily....meat proteins in our diet. That's why all those kitties on corn based foods are spending a lot of time at the vets for health related problems.

Not me!

Dave buys me Life's Abundance Cat food and the Daily Supplement. (correct that...Daily treat) It's because the Life's Abundance food is meat based and provides me with the proteins I need to live the longest and healthiest life possible.

And the Daily Supplement gives me those extra vitamins and minerals that I need. (Dr. Jane says the Daily Supplement is really important....but I love the taste so much...I call them treats!)

I sure do look and feel good...and have a shiny coat that glistens in the sunlight. And I never go to the vets for health related issues.

=>> From one feline to another, I really want you to experience this delightfully Purr-fect dining ecstasy in your next food bowl.

Get your human friend to Go here and get you on the Life's Abundance Daily Nutritional System:

     Check out Alfred's Favorite Feline Dining Experience Here

You will be purring all the way to the feed bowl.

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