Quote Originally Posted by bowlkat View Post
Smarter cats (and I certainly include Torties) can definitely get into 'battles of wits' with their humans on topics like this and they can be stubborn as hell- good luck!!

In my house, we eventually ran up a white flag and said to hell with it, the cats can be on the counters all they want, what's the harm? We lost and they won. Result is, they now don't spend much time there- the thrill is gone now, they're allowed to do it so it isn't so desirable any more.
I have a little Tabby/Tortie blend who is VERY smart and we kind of gave up on the counters as well. She's now two and a half; she gets up on the counters occasionally, but doesn't live there. You pick your battles; that's just one that becomes rather unimportant when you stop obsessing about it.