Jumping up on Kitchen Counters

(St. Louis)

Where do I even start? I have never had a cat as challenging as Iggy....which is short for Igga-my...which is Danish for "not me"...as in "Not me mom, I didn't do it". He had been with us for 24 hours when he earned that name.

One of our four biggest issues is that we can't keep Iggy off the kitchen counters. We have tried motion sensored alarms that either make a lot of noise or blast him with air, but have had no lasting programming from them. The noise he ignores and the air spooks him for a moment but then he learns to work around the edges of the motion sensor. Squirting him with water doesn't work because we don't usually know he is up there until we hear him jump down. We know he gets up there when we are gone during the day because of the litter box dust paw prints we find. When we are home he only gets up there when we are all seated for dinner or watching tv...which tells me that he knows he is not supposed to be up there. We have learned not to leave out (or leave uncovered) anything he might be interesting in eating, but the behavior persists. Suggestions???