Conference misery::feline_v1

    Have you tried a water pistol? This is how we persuaded Kimi and
    Sura to stay off the kitchen bench and the dining table. Well, let's
    be accurate... we persuaded them to stay off said surfaces when
    we are not in sight!
    
    After we had used the water pistol for a while, we found that pointing
    a finger at them and making a gun noise had the same effect; Kimi
    even rolls over as if he's been shot! He is a very dramatic cat.

    Yes, a water pistol should do the trick.  In order to have this
    treatment be effective even when you're not around, try to be sneaky
    when you shoot them.  If they don't associate you with the water
    pistol they will think that unpleasant sqirt of water is triggered
    by the countertop, and not by you.  
    
    Get a pistol with a long range, and good aim.  Have fun :-) !
    
    -- Craig

	A plant mister will usually work if you unscrew the spray nozzle
	a bit.  The one I use has a range of about 20 feet.  Also, I found
	that if you let the cat see the thing when you squirt it, then you
	can "protect" the area by simply leaving the mister out on the
	countertop.  I relaize this last part one day when I decided to 
	mist my plants, and the cats all dove under the couch.

						     
							- JP

    I have used the plant mister and it works for me too.  JP was right
    about it being left in the room to keep things under control.
    
    Sometimes I leave it in the room to discourage rough play.  The
    cats behave like little angels when the mister is around.  And you
    can also set the mister on stream to hit the cats at long range!
    
    Oh what fun!!!
    
    Another method that I have used with one of my cats (the obstinate
    one) is to remove him bodily from the counter top and put him into
    the bathroom.  If he gets on the counter, he gets put in the bathroom
    for time out.  After about a half an hour, I let him out of the
    bathroom.  I don't yell and scream at him I just remove him.  You
    have to be consistent about this.  It is the only thing that worked
    on this cat, the mister seemed to be a treat to him!
    
    Jo

	Jo, the bathroom is a good idea.  I used to put one of my 
	cats outside when it misbehaved, and accidently trained him 
	to misbehave anytime he wanted to go out!  The retraining
	was real messy for a while, since go out usually equated to 
	go poop.  Once I started with the mister, he learned that
	the best way to get out dry was to meow at the back door.

						     
							- JP

    JP-
    Just remember to put a litter box in there with him!  We keep our
    litter boxes in the bathrooms anyway.  This method also works great
    for indiscriminate urination.  Confine them to the bathroom with
    the litter box following meals.  Continue this practice until they
    relearn proper litter box procedure.  Cats are like kids, after
    so much yelling and screaming they become "mother deaf"!  I think
    it works better to just take action.
    Jo

    Try using mousetraps that are set, but placed upside down.  They
    snap real well, but they don't get the paws if they are upside down,
    it just scares the heck out of the cats. HONEST, it will not hurt
    the cat.  You can even slightly spring them if you feel safer that
    way, but the noise really does the job.
    
    Mary-Lynn

    
    Something that we've used is to put out aluminun pie tins (or the
    smaller ones that you get with frozen dinners, etc.) on the counter.
    When the cat jumps up, the tins make a terrific noise and that
    supposedly bothers the cats. 
    
    I say "supposedly" because when I put the tins out, the cats don't
    seem to go on the counters at all (since the tins don't appear to
    be moved). But, when I don't put the tins out, there is cat fur
    on the counter. So, they do know when the tins are/aren't there!
    (smart little monsters that they are....)
   
    Good luck!  
    
    ps - I used to use the bathroom trick when the cats would start
    playing too rough with each other or with us. It was a good "quiet"
    time/place.

    I'm not home often enough to be effective in training the cats
    (especially Nebula!) to not go on the counters by squirting them;
    I find fur up there but they know better than to get caught misbehaving
    (usually).  A friend discovered that her long-haired kitty hated
    getting things stuck in his fur, so she would put strips of masking
    tape on the counters. I think he went on the counter once after
    that, got tape stuck to his toes, and never tried it again!