How do I keep her off the counters!

[Patti]

I just found this - I have no idea how effective it is, but certainly less expensive than a Scat Mat so might be worth trying: http://www.ryanspet.com/search.aspx?criteria=stay off mat
Another option for things such as chairs, etc.: http://www.ryanspet.com/search.aspx?criteria=x-mat

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

I tried those X-mats before to try to stop the cats hanging out under the bed (when one was ambushing another)...it didn't seem to have any effect on them :-(

The sonic mat thingy might be interesting though...

 

[Per Lausund]

My 17wo F2 Sabrina has started walking the counters in our kitchen. She can't jump up there directly yet, but she has the moves to get there by other means. I've cleared off everything that I possibly can to make the area less interesting (my 10' long bar is absolutely bare now), but that just means that the most interesting thing to investigate is the sink of clean dishes!

I've tried using a squirt bottle on her. That worked. At first. Now I think that she thinks its a game. She'll run around back and forth until she is pretty much soaked and then leap off the counter like a flying squirrel (that does look pretty funny). She'll hop onto the bar stools and pop her head up and down and wait to be squirted moving randomly among the three chairs (kinda like whack a mole).

Obviously just ignoring her up there won't work because I know that she gets up there when we're not around (by evidence in the sink). I think if she thought it was only game fodder, she wouldn't get up there when we aren't there.

And: yes, she has other vertical spaces -- most higher than the counters. And, like I said, the only interesting things up there now are the freakin' sinks. I can't exactly remove those.

Am I just screwed and I just have to let the cat have the counters? Or is there something else that I can try? I already let her have the kitchen table. Its totally bare now too. I just wipe it down before we use it.

When you find out, please tell! Here, we have cats on the counters, in the sink, on the table and in all the chairs and sofas. And we accept it, not that we have much choice! Anything seems to be reachable with a jump up for the SVs or DOWN often as not for the BGs. And flies? Well, the old air-defence dictum is still valid: if it flies, it dies. The cats go for a collective approach there, including any horizontal and quite a few vertical areas in the chase. We just sit down and enjoy, anything that would fall down already has.
And quite a few of the cats end up on a lap and with some purring everything is forgotten...

 

[Trish Allearz]

I tried those X-mats before to try to stop the cats hanging out under the bed (when one was ambushing another)...it didn't seem to have any effect on them :-(

The sonic mat thingy might be interesting though...

Those are cat toe massagers!!! We bought them and placed them on our master windowsills because we were tired of being divebombed by foster kittens/cats at night back in the day... Didn't work at all!!!

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

I have memories of Katie sitting on one of those static mats, you know the ones that zap them if they touch them. Some kitties just are bad that way... I was wondering about the sonic mat as that one seems to emit a noise rather than static charge?

Per, I love the "if it flies, it dies" as that describes our household, JN has a remote controlled helicopter he likes to play with and learned quickly that he needed to shut the cats out of a room if he wanted to fly it indoors... the first time he tried indoors, Baz just sat there watching it and then reached up and slapped it so hard he broke off a propeller wing.

 

[Sue Armstrong]

I personally use the scat mats. Don't exactly like my cats getting shocked but it is better than them getting their feet burned on the stove or knocking something glass on the floor and cutting themselves or they have knocked heavy pans on the floor or my blender, toaster who knows, onto the head of another kitty on the floor. I just have too many cats in the house and the scat mat works wonders. I do move it around from time to time and currently it is on my kitchen table as someone during the night decided to swing from the kitchen light fixture which is now hanging dangerously out of the ceiling. Noone wants to go near the kitchen table now and I will have to leave it there until I get an electrician out here. I love the scat mats. It is for their protection really. The stove is the biggest scare to me. I do not want burned feet!

 

[xumi's mom]

I love the ssscat cans too, they really work. I can have them turned off most of the time but placed strategically, if Xumi sees one, she won't go near it. They can be expensive, with replacement cans and batteries, especially when me and my husband would forget they were on and set them off ourselves I think we triggered them more than Xumi did!

Another thing I tried was taking some old vinyl placemats and covering one side of them with carpet tape (really strong double-sided tape). She REALLY didn't like those, but it was a hassle finding a place to store them so they wouln't stick together when I needed to use the counter.

 

[xumi's mom]

I tried those X-mats before to try to stop the cats hanging out under the bed (when one was ambushing another)...it didn't seem to have any effect on them :-(

The sonic mat thingy might be interesting though...

I thought all my problems were solved when I found X-Mats at the feed store! AHA, I thought, wait til Xumi gets a taste of these! At the time we couldn't keep her off the TV table. I set a couple of them up there, and not only did she walk across them, she sat down on one and looked at me like "Really?".

 

[Per Lausund]

I generally find eggs 'n bacon AND baked beans tends to keep them ON the table...

 

[admin]

Max is naughty

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