open floor plan and the cat and kitchens

I am moving to a house where the only rooms that have doors are the bathrooms and bedrooms. So my current habit of keeping my cat out of the dining room and kitchen is very successful with the use of one door and a can of ssscat which seem like a blue hissing monster to her. she waits patiently outside the dining room while we eat.

But the new house would have to be triggered like a landmine to accomplish this so as long as i am going to get accustomed to having my cat in my kitchen and on surfaces..... will she be smart enough to avoid hot gas rangetops and ovens that open and garbage disposals and all the dangers i now imagine lurk in my mind that I have not had to deal with? Sure she'll be older when we move... but smarter?

What's the experience of those of you who give your cats free roam to the kitchen?

To the best of my knowledge, Abby has never been on my stove or countertops. Maybe I should say I have never caught her. She used to go up on my kitchen table quite often. I ended up putting a clear plastic tablecloth on it for a bit. She hated the feel of it and eventually stopped jumping on it. I have since taken the tablecloth off and very rarely see her on it. The dining room table is another story. We rarely use it, and she feels it is a launching pad to all of the other furniture in the room.

We've never had a problem. Just keep all foods off the counters - that's what tempts them to get up there. Ling is still hard headed about counters at times.

Also make sure there is no food in the disposal. You might want to put a cover over it to be sure they don't get in trouble.

Honestly, the major problem I have is that Samuel gets up on the stove whether there is food up there or not. He gets hair all over and its pretty gross, but that might be something unique to him.

the only other disadvantage is I can't leave dishes in the sink while I'm not home. (Last week he walked through some bacon grease and then did laps around the house...including over my bedspread. Nice!)

My cat has had free range of the kitchen since she was quite little, and I've never had any real problems.

Your cat might be tempted to explore the kitchen, but if you see her on the counters or stove, use whatever method you prefer to get her off. I used a spraybottle filled with water, and only needed it a couple times before she got the picture.

The only problem I've had is when I forget and leave something tasty on the counter, then she'll go up to have a look.

If you are worried about your cat begging while you eat dinner, you can time her feeding time with yours, so she'll be occupied with her own food.

Enjoy the new house!

I've never lived anywhere that had doors to the kitchen. The cats aren't too much of a problem with the counters, etc. Zissou doesn't have much interest in it, since it's the one place she's not allowed and it doesn't seem that cool anyway.
We have an electric range (grrrr) so I think that's scarier then gas since it stays hot longer. If its detached it shouldn't be as much of a prob.
One of the biggest problems I have with Z and the kitchen is that she LOVES plastic bags and we've needed to keep a rubber band on the "plastic bag land" door so she isn't in there. Keeping cats out of the trash is also harder.
I wouldn't worry much about the hot stove, since just like us they'll notice its hot and leave it alone if they even touch it once. And make sure the switch to the dish disposer is covered or in a cabinet so they can't turn it on.

It probably won't be as much of a problem as you think it might.

Congrats on the new house !

I just disinfect the countertop I use to cook before I prepare food.

Cats are trainable. Truly!

Trick and Treat, my new ferals aren't there, yet, but every cat
I've ever had has been trained thusly:

Cats are NOT allowed on "tables." A "table" is a hard (not
upholstered) flat surface above the floor level. Period.
"Get off that table!" is in my cats' vocabulary. They
don't cross the line often. Note that the definition
includes counter tops.

Cats eat ONLY their food on their plates. If it's not on their plate,
it's not theirs. Period. I started this early, would eat on the
floor, and leave my plate on the floor between bites. If a cat
approached to sniff, she was warned "out!." If she actually
touched the plate, she was swatted away, the way the mother
cat would, with a loud "out!" They learned.

Note that this meant I got a set of salad plates specifically
for the cats, and all goodies are served on those plates, and
only those plates, and are used only for the cats.

"I'm eating," is also in my cats' vocabularies. It means go away
and don't beg. They leave the room, or at least go lie down and
do not bother us at the table.

It takes consistency of rules, consistency of enforcement, and
patience. Lots of positive reinforcement for good beheavior.
Deterence for bad behavior (water pistols, etc.) But cats can learn
what is and is not appropriate behavior.

Good luck!

Carol

My cats have free access to most areas of the house but the counters around the stove are totally off limits to them. If they jump up to that spot, they get the wrath of mom. With that said, who knows what they do when I'm gone.

As a safety measure, I keep a teakettle with about an inch of water it on the stove top and when I'm done with a burner, I place the kettle on the hot burner. It's removed when I know it has cooled down.

We had 1 mishap over the years when Koko went up the counter in pursuit of a fly that was by the light over the stove. There was a pot of chili cooking with the lid off and as she was coming down from her jump, 2 of her paws landed in the chili. So now we either stay in the kitchen when things are cooking or leave a lid partially covering the pot.

cats are cleaner than kids.....my cats get the run of the house. I squirt cleaner on the counters before I do any baking.

Originally Posted by AbbysMom

To the best of my knowledge, Abby has never been on my stove or countertops. Maybe I should say I have never caught her. She used to go up on my kitchen table quite often. I ended up putting a clear plastic tablecloth on it for a bit. She hated the feel of it and eventually stopped jumping on it. I have since taken the tablecloth off and very rarely see her on it. The dining room table is another story. We rarely use it, and she feels it is a launching pad to all of the other furniture in the room.

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I bought a metre of plastic for my table top as well. The cats LOVE it. They particularly love to try and crawl between the tablecloth and the plastic and look out through the plastic at us.

When our cat was little and we first got her, she used to jump on the counter sometimes..she has never gone near the stove though for some reason she stays away from it.
Whenever we heard her jump on the counter, one of us would start stomping loudly on the floor in the other room, and then she would just jump off. After a few times of this, she doesn't go on the counter anymore. She has never had an interest in the sink (thank goodness) and we leave her alone and alot of the time there will be a few dishes in there.
I think maybe some cats just are interested in different things..Maybe your cat won't care about the sink or the stove..you never know

I have started teaching her the word NO and using a can with pennies in it so when we move she will have these concepts. She rarely ever did anything that has needed an intervention (... except walk on my keyboard and I rang a bell and she would jump down...} so this is a kind of new concept for the both of us. thanks for all the tips everyone... esp the reminder that when I am in the kitchen with the cooktop on she will be supervised by me anyway and at night it wont matter.

Originally Posted by lionessrampant

I just disinfect the countertop I use to cook before I prepare food.

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Harley has free roam of everything in the apartment - even the kitchen.

I always disinfect everything before preparing a meal, afterwards and inbetween (I like to clean)

He likes to be up high, and the counters are where he likes to be. He never hurts anything or anyone - and since I'm always careful to disinfect, I don't see a problem at the current moment with him doing it!