Advice needed before my boyfriend loses it!

[momoffuzzyfaces]

Aluminum foil with on the counters along with soda cans filled with pennies. They hate both sounds.

My silly cats love aluminum foil!!! I've given up on keeping them off the counters. I've squirted them with water until they dripped. They love it.
I just lock them out of the kitchen and wipe down everything before I cook anything. They aren't allowed back in until all food is put away and dishes are done. Might not be the best solution but it works for us.

[Taz_Zoee]

It's not the dirty paws and food preparation that bothers me. It's just the idea of the cat up there where food is prepared in general. I don't know why. Maybe it's from growing up with no animals aloud in the house AT ALL. We never had animals in the house until my sister was an adult and brought home the min pin puppy. Now none of the animals live outside. Oh, except the horse.

I can't close the kitchen. There are no doors! LOL Like I said, I'm going to give these suggestions to Bruce and see what he thinks. Even if it doesn't keep him off the counter forever, it might just help while Bruce is in there working so he won't have to wrangle him all the time.

[Craftlady]

I have some feeding dishes placed on the kitchen counter (out of Coco's reach, he LOVES cat food, silly dog). They hop on everything, other counter and refrigerator top. I just clean off the surfaces with handy Clorox wipes when I am ready to prepare food. It would be a losing battle with my gang of 6 if I tried to keep them off of stuff.

Foil never worked, they loved the touch, sound.

[Catty1]

What Craftlady said...use the wipes, or put on rubber gloves and give the surface a light coating of undiluted bleach. Give it several minutes, then wipe well and 'rinse' with a wet cloth or etc.

You might need to do this only twice a week to get rid of the smells that Jax finds so tempting.

[Taz_Zoee]

I might have a solution! I have some orange scented dish soap, so I put some on my fingers and held it up to his nose. He jumped back squinting. So I'm going to look for some kind of spray or cleaner with an orange (or citrus) scent. Thanks Claudia!!

And another big thanks to everyone for the ideas. I will definitely come back to this if the scent thing doesn't work. Or maybe we will just let him have his way. LOL

[kitten645]

Hey kiddo! I have some potpouri called Bitter Orange that I think is divine. I'll bring you a sample to Wine & Whiskers and see if it deters wee Jax!

[mruffruff]

After several years of cats on the counters, I decided I'd had enough. The cats weren't interested in the new rule. Water pistol wasn't going to work unless I camped out in the kitchen. Plastic runners with little bumps on the top side didn't work-they just walked between the bumps. Foil just kept falling on the floor.

Bit the bullet and bought two 40X20 Scat mats. Set them for static shock and beep. Guess who got the first shock?

Yup! And a dandy it was. I remembered real well not to lean in the counter as I walked by!

After two weeks and a few zaps, no more cats on the counters. It was a real pain to work around the mats (pun intended). Now I have the mats back in the boxes, at least until I catch someone on the counter again.

I probably wouldn't have resorted to the mats if the cats didn't pee on the backsplash and roll of paper towels while they were up there.