Yesterday, during dinner, Tigress kept trying to get onto the dining room table, presumably so she could “investigate” (and perhaps help me eat?) my dinner. She isn’t quite big enough (yet) to jump straight onto the table, so she kept jumping up onto my chair and trying to climb onto the table from there. Mike eventually picked her up and carted her off to another room to distract her.
After dinner, I decided to do some chocolatiering, tempering some chocolate while cutting up the caramels and the fudge, and then dip a batch or two. No problem, right? But I hadn’t counted on the persistence of the Mighty (Mischievous) Huntress. There I was, dipping the 87th ginger-chile-lime caramel into chocolate and carefully sprinkling it with chopped peanuts, humming a happy little chocolatiering tune, when suddenly – BAM! – there’s a cat in the middle of my chocolates. Tigress had sneaked up behind me, jumped on one of the dining room chairs (which I had deliberately moved away to what I thought was a safe distance), and taken a flying leap onto the dining room table. She landed right in the middle of my chocolates tray.
I reflexively grabbed her and deposited her on the floor. She ran off, leaving a chocolate smudge on the floor. Yikes! Chocolate is poisonous to cats, though they don’t generally eat it since (unlike dogs) they aren’t attracted to sugar. However, she would undoubtedly groom the chocolate off her paws, eating it in the process…I called Mike to help, he lured her out of wherever she was hiding and picked her up, and I took off the chocolate with a wet paper towel. End of chocolate adventure.
Anyway, I’m hoping I startled her enough that she won’t leap onto the table again while I’m chocolatiering, but I kinda doubt it. So I’m going to start removing any chairs in the area before doing more chocolatiering. Especially the ones behind me. From the sides at least I can see her coming.
And I did manage to finish the ginger chile lime peanut caramels:
And the English toffee:
And, to finish off the post, a cat’s-eye view of the chocolate culprit:
She’s so adorable that it’s impossible to get angry with her, even when she’s being exceptionally naughty.
A spray filled with water works wonders to discourage unwanted behavior. The key is to be consistent. Your kitty babies are adorable.
Desmond Morris suggests that you “talk” to your cats as their mother would. That means that you growl at the cat when the do something you don’t want them to do. Has worked swimmingly for us. Sometimes they look at you – growl the second time and then they get it. Simple and effective.
I trained my cats to stay off the counter (and stove) by leaving empty aluminum cans stacked in rickety pyramids there, when I left for work. Only took two days. Kitty no likee!