Knocking Everything Off The Table

[meto]

its not a huge deal, and its kinda funny, but Caine didn't used to go on surfaces where there's too many things for him to lay down. The living room table has a serving tray in the middle and its pretty small so ive been safe putting keys, tissue box, mail and other random things on it for over a year now. Well, now he's figured out he can just knock everything off in order to clear a space to lay down. He'll also scratch up any books i put there and try to eat the tissues. Maybe I'll buy something i can hang on the wall to put this stuff in instead...

Instead of giving up, has anyone else figured out a strategy to discourage this type of behavior?

 

[di and bob]

Once a cat has this down it is extremely hard to discourage it. I have had only two cats out of about 50 that do this and both had the stubborn, mischievous, annoying but lovable, Siamese breed in them. One even walked across our heads when he thought it was time for us to get up in the mornings! Myself, I would just do as you say and hang something from the wall, and put up all valuable pieces. Life is too short to argue with a cat, they always seem to win, you may lose the battle but you'll win the war with the love and affection they bring into your life!

 

[rubysmama]

My Ruby actually doesn't knock things off tables, at least not on purpose. But if the amount of memes and cartoons out there are any indication, your Caine is in good company. Here's just a couple that made me laugh.

 

[FeebysOwner]

The only piece of furniture, besides couches/chairs that Feeby gets on is the coffee table in our living room. And, this is generally only for the purpose of transporting herself from one couch to another. That way, she doesn't have to jump down on the floor from one couch and back up again to the next couch, I guess.

The only cat I ever had that really got up on a non-seat type surface was Tawny - and he would ONLY do it when I wasn't home. I had a huge counter between the kitchen and living room - why he wanted up there is above and beyond me.

 

[susanm9006]

Get boxes and baskets and set your items inside. If the cat knocks the whole thing off, use Velcro tabs to stick down the box or basket. Velcro also works great to hold down items on the toilet tank, dresser top etc. easy enough to pick up and use or clean around but can’t be knocked over.

 

[m3rma1d]

If only cats could bring us in some income for their "interior decorating" skills.

 

[kissthisangel]

Both mine do this. In fact, sometimes Charlie will get on the table, knock off one thing after another and then stretch out in the space he's made weaving himself between any clutter left. If I had any need to stop them I would use the adhesive velcro idea from Susanm

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

What we do in our household is to pick a more generic table (a location where all of your valuable knick-knacks are NOT situated) and set up a row of jingle balls, balled up paper, quarters, a few small paperbacks set upright, a few bottle tops, a stuffed animal, and so forth, all along the edge of the table. (We do this up on her cat tree platforms, too, and also on window sills.)

It's very tempting to the cat.

She then gravitates towards the surfaces where these fun-to-push-off items are located, instead of the nightstand or coffee table where more valuable-to-the-human items are located.

Yes, we come home or wake up to a jumbled toy mess on the floor beneath the table, but I think everyone is much happier.