Door top climbing, how can I stop her?

HI everyone, hoping that someone can help me. Tia has developed almost a fetish about jumping up on top of the doors in our house. She balances on the top edge and mews loudly to "announce" that she is up there and "look at ME!". I have tried scolding her and ignoring her, neither of which seems to work. I think it is a combination of trying to get my attention and also to gloat at Jasper since he is too big to try it but I am afraid she will get hurt. Anyone have any ideas on how to stop this behavior? I am afraid to use a squirt bottle as I don't WANT her to try and jump to the floor. She jumps from the top perch of the cat tree to the front door top and from a desk to the bedroom door top and yesterday I caught her trying to "position" the bathroom door so she could jump on top of THAT one from the counter top! I can't move the countertops and the furniture isn't that close to the doortops but that doesn't stop her. Thanks everyone.

I think Tia is being a very normal kitty. Cats are more surefooted than you think.

I agree, Yayi. Fawn drives me bananas, the way she hangs off the top stair over a ten foot drop, wriggling and grinning at me. I swear she's going to drop on her head or something, but she never does. I wouldn't worry too much, Carol -- she's just being a show off.

Ok if you ladies think so. I wouldn't worry so much if she wasn't so little.....sigh. Thank you for your imput, I appreciate it. :-)

haha. I would LOVE to see a picture of that!

Originally Posted by eupnea

haha. I would LOVE to see a picture of that!

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Ok here it is, hope I don't get in trouble for posting it here.This time she was "stalking" the Santa Claus on the door
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oh my goodness! What an adorable brave little hunter!

(if you get in trouble, blame me!)

I gave up on trying to win in similar situations when I saw one of ours (a very long time ago when we let them out) walking across a 1-2" diam. ice-covered round pipe outside in the back alley, a long way from the ground! And Siamese are the worst! Nothing terrible should happen if she falls anyway - she will 'right' herself in time.

thanks for this post. Lat night my cat went from a set of shelves 9 feet high to the cornice boards of swags and jabots if the large windows in the den. First i was a wreck for her. ten feet in the air there was no way I could reach her without getting the ladder frm the attic, and then I thought about the damask swags and how expensive they were and would they hold her if she grabbed at them and took a free fall. So thanks for the reminder of how sure footed a cat is. I knew she would be up there some day, I did not expect it so soon.

How old is Tia?
Chuckie and Spyder used to do that when they were younger but I think they grew out of it.....well, Chuckie's so big now I think he'd probably break the door if he tried it now!!

Originally Posted by yayi

I think Tia is being a very normal kitty. Cats are more surefooted than you think.

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So true! "You ain't seen nuthin' yet" until you see a leaping Turkish Van in action. We discovered long ago that within an hour of a TV coming to a new home he or she will have been atop every horizontal surface in the house, without exception, no matter how high, and it never stops.

One of Samwise's favorite bad tricks is to leap atop a door and stare at me -- taunting me -- and he is a BIG cat. Since I am not tall enough to get him down I have to take Jim away from whatever he is doing, and then have to listen to him grumbling, "He's not hurting anything. Just ignore him and he will decide he is not irritating you and then will take up another bad habit." I'm sure Jim is right, but I still worry about ol' Sam breaking a leg jumping down.

My eldest son's big male TV has the same habit Samwise has -- he will sit and stare at a surface way above his head, appearing to judge the distance while getting up his courage to make the leap -- and then make the leap he does. One day the family came home from an outing to find one of the blades of a ceiling fan broken off and on the floor. I'm sure it was only dumb luck that the ceiling fan was turned off at the time.

Turkish Vans have very powerful muscles, and an unusually strong upper body, often attributed to their being swimmers in the wild. They are not only devoted leapers, but they can climb like a monkey if they do not quite make it to their objective in one jump.

Our furbabies wouldn't be the great fun they are if they didn't do things like this, would they?

Originally Posted by stormy

How old is Tia?
Chuckie and Spyder used to do that when they were younger but I think they grew out of it.....well, Chuckie's so big now I think he'd probably break the door if he tried it now!!

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Tia will be a year old on April 9th of this year. I guess I should be glad that I don't have any "great rooms" with exposed rafter beams after reading some of the other posts. Thanks