I snapped at my cat.

[Caspers Human]

He's a happy cat, he found a new spot next to the heater, so he sleeps there all day.

Sounds, to me, like you nailed it!

Watch when he goes to lay by the heater. I bet you a nickel he knows the sound of the furnace kicking on. When he hears it, I bet he knows the heat will be coming up, soon. When the furnace comes on he'll go lay down by the heater.

That's what Casper does! One day, I heard the thermostat click on. About ten seconds later, here comes Casper. He laid down by the heater and waited for the warm air to come up.

I bet your cat either knows or will soon learn to associate the sound of the furnace turning on with warm air coming from the vents, too!

 

[iPappy]

Sounds, to me, like you nailed it!

Watch when he goes to lay by the heater. I bet you a nickel he knows the sound of the furnace kicking on. When he hears it, I bet he knows the heat will be coming up, soon. When the furnace comes on he'll go lay down by the heater.

That's what Casper does! One day, I heard the thermostat click on. About ten seconds later, here comes Casper. He laid down by the heater and waited for the warm air to come up.

I bet your cat either knows or will soon learn to associate the sound of the furnace turning on with warm air coming from the vents, too!

My two love a spot in the laundry room and they seem to gravitate towards it when the dryer is running.

 

[ailish]

I find what i ended up doing is put the food down and go do something else pretend the cat isn't there basicly. Eventualy they always come and eat a few bites. Basicaly you are rewarding the picky behaviour making a fuss over it. Akin to a toddler throwing a tantrum.
Might not work for everyone but it does for me.

This can be my cat. I decided from the beginning she would not be a picky eater. She is generally a good eater and right from the start she got lots of variety. She has three wet meals and a dry meal, the dry at night with the automatic feeder. I put a meal down and it's for her to eat or not. It's not unheard of for her to sniff it and walk away. The food stays available to her until the next meal, when she gets new food whether or not she's eaten the previous meal. 99 times out of 100, by the next meal the previous meal is eaten. Usually she makes about three passes to eat one meal. For her favorite foods it may be gone in one sitting. Now and then she goes on an "I only eat seafood" strike. During the strike she will stave off starvation by eating some nonfish food, but will generally only finish off the fish. During a strike she gets the same fish/nonfish rotation as always, about 50/50. Those strikes last about a week and then she's back to eating everything. My strict rule that I enforce is that there's no substitutions once food is served. If she refuses to touch a food that she has previously eaten, that's it until the next meal, at which time I will feed something different. Her rule for me is that she must have variety. Her limit is three meals in a row of the same food. After that it is doubtful that she'll eat ANY food a fourth time in a row. The few times she has stopped eating for more than one meal she went to the vet and it turned out to be a tooth problem.

I have found that with cats, mythically untrainable, one reward for naughty behavior usually results in about a week of similar and endlessly repeated, naughty behavior. Of course, not all cat misbehavior is the result of their being trained to do it, but a lot is.