Our awful renting neighbors neglected their outdoor cat, who ended up living in our patio. With polydactyl paws, we named him “Ernest” for his big-foot Hemingway-cat front paws. Neighbors just vacated and Ernest is off to the vet on Tuesday for check-up, neutering, and shots. He’s about four years old; he luxuriates in the outdoor breezes and sleeps in the cool, shaded grass. We are not sure if he will adapt to being an indoor cat.
Anyone have any ideas?

I guess if I have to decide if I’d rather have clean counters or the company of a cat, I’ll always choose the cat!

around here we call it a herd of elephants…and that’s just one 3.5 month old kitten! (well we do have an older cat but he rarely does that).

The Queen of the Universe’s sister could never for the life of her figure out why she got yelled at for being on the table, but it was okay to be on the sideboard. Stretch out all-the-way (and she was a big, fluffly cat) on the dining room table on a hot summer day to catch the breeze from the window and she was tossed to the floor the minute I came into the room. Do the same on the sideboard and she was ignored. I’d see this puzzled look on her face her entire life as I passed through to the kitchen and didn’t bother her on the sideboard (which she could practically stetch out on from end to end!), “Why doesn’t Mommy care that I’m on THIS table, but cares about the other one????”

There was a reason she was the Queen of the Universe’s sister, rather than a co-Universial Queen — but she was a sweet and lovely cat!

The thing about training cats is that it’s so very hard not to give positive reinforcement for undesirable behaviour. Because no matter what they’re doing, no matter how naughty it is, it’s still so damned cute.

Hence the success of LOLCats . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I’ve managed to train my cats not to scratch furniture or carpet that doesn’t belong to them, and they know they’re not allowed on the kitchen counter (though they go up when they know no one is looking.)

Beyond that, all my efforts at changing undesirable behaviour have flopped, because I just can’t be consistent. I’ll shoo them down from the end tables in the living room some of the time. But other times they’re just so cute sitting up there, I just watch watch them and giggle. They know I do this and they know very well that they can get away with being on the tables about half the time.

I’ve had better luck with leash training and car ride training and things that don’t require changing an undesirable behaviour. Because I’m just a complete sucker for cats - they have me wrapped around their paws, and they know it.