“Help! I can’t keep my cat off my kitchen counter!” Sounds familiar?
Cats usually develop a fondness for your kitchen counters because of three basic reasons:
- Cats have a weakness for climbing heights and your counter provides an excellent dose of height for them.
- Your kitchen counter is warm and comforting. Aside from the temperature, think of all the delectable smells that could be swirling all around your kitchen.
- The tasty morsels of food your cat could pick up every now and then.
It may seem cute and cuddly as they loiter at your kitchen counters, but you shouldn’t tolerate this from your cat for a number of reasons:
You might lose your food. You look away just for a second and BAM! Whatever you’re cooking could be in the claws of your loving cat even before you get the chance of tasting it. And could you blame your cat if it smells and tastes good? Also, your cat could be in danger of picking up food morsels that could be harmful for it like chicken or fish bones.
Fur as your main ingredient. With your pet loitering on your kitchen counter, more or less, your kitchen is swarming with its fur. And you wouldn’t want that in your dish, not only does it carry bacteria, it could be very harmful if somebody in your house is allergic to fur.
Litters. As they frequent your kitchen counter, it is inevitable for them to “spray” or leave pieces of excrements, not to mention the dirt they might already be carrying on their feet. As this pose a threat to food poisoning or infections-this is a definite no-no.
Your cat might burn itself. It is a common knowledge to all that cats are curious creatures. And allowing them to linger on your kitchen tops pose a significant threat to them, especially when you are cooking or boiling water as there is a huge possibility they might hurt themselves with burns and scalds.
Now that we’ve established that cat’s on your kitchen counters is not a good thing, how do we get them off there?
Here are a few suggestions:
Cut their means of climbing. Block all possible entrances or leverages they could use for climbing your kitchen counter. No way to climb, no cat on the counter.
Keep your kitchen counter free from food morsels. If you frequently clean your kitchen from food scrap, the less reason for your cat to stay there.
Spew your cat with water. Although not a very advisable option since most pet owners tend to soak their cats with it. A simple spray of water should be enough to shoo your cats off your counters.
Fasten sticky tape to your countertops. Cats hate sticky materials and doing this would make them annoyed enough to stay away from your kitchen tops.
Booby traps. Or mild punishments like aluminum foil with water or mouse traps lying on your counter top could discourage your cat from counter surfing.
If your cat is intelligent enough, you could train it to avoid counter surfing by giving him punishments if he does and rewards if he doesn’t. Either way, you should keep your cats off kitchen tops, VCRS or dish receivers as they could cause harm to you and your pet.