by Pam Hilts

Created on: May 12, 2009   Last Updated: May 13, 2009

Cat hair does not belong on the kitchen counter. In addition, the cat that has the cat hair does not belong on the kitchen counter. My cat certainly knows better than to hop up onto the counter when I'm around. Ah, but there is the rub, I am not always around. It is during my nocturnal ritual of sleeping that she stealthily cruises the kitchen counters. She is probably using her well honed hunting skills to find delectable morsels of treasure left there from an incomplete job of my twelve-year old's kitchen patrol duties.

Cats are notoriously difficult to train. I mean really, how many (domestic) cat acts have you seen at the circus lately! Convincing a cat to do anything it does not want to do is often like trying to pin Jell-O to a wall. You see thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. I don't think they have ever forgotten this.

We employed a humane, yet effective way to purrrrsuade Miss Priss that the counter top is not a place she wants to be. And while it takes a bit of work to set up, it is not only effective it can be downright hysterical! Anyone who has tried to bathe a cat will come to the quick conclusion that water is NOT their friend, thus it becomes a fair weapon in the war of feline behavior control.

Lay your hands on as many cookie-tray-type pans that you can. Anything that has a small lip that will hold water is fair game. Fill these containers with water and spread them all over your counter top.

You see the trick is that Miss Priss is jumping blind, and she is certainly NOT expecting to land in a puddle of water. Later, while you are snuggled in your warm bed, lodged in that place where you aren't quite awake and not quite asleep, you are liable to be jarred back to consciousness by the sound of a pan making a crash landing onto your kitchen floor. In my case, Miss Priss came running, at super-sonic speed, into my room to take cover in her favorite corner of my closet. I lay there laughing at Miss Priss's expense and I hope she has learned something from this watery encounter.

Repeat several times. Success will come when your hair-toting pet fails to leave you a soggy mess to mop up in the morning.

If training cats is a foreign idea, what do you think about training your fish? Take a look at this funny, but potentially serious clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Iznh9VbsY! Oh Oscar... Oscar... here fishy fishy fishy.......

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