My Meltdown over the Cat

Wembley our cat has been stressing me out completely. He is a climber. I've never had a cat who climbs and Wembley is on everything. The thing that bothers me the most is the counter tops. It's disgusting. Trust me, I know this. I hear people talk say, "how can you let your cat on the counter??"

Let me ask you this question....how can you prevent it? If you can tell me then go right ahead but nothing is working.

We first tried ScatSpray cans. They have an automatic sensor. They worked for my parents and the dogs and cats stayed out of their dining room. Not Wembley. You could spray him in the face and he wouldn't care.

We have tried a water bottle. But of course you have to actually be there to squirt him. So now he thinks it's a game and will run around the house.

Aluminum foil? Yup. Been there, done that. He actually got on the counter and took a little nap on top of it.

Yelling does nothing. Putting blockers on the counter does nothing but make him want up even more because he likes to push things off.

Finally we found, what I thought would be, our saving grace.

You are now looking at the ScatMat. It is a plastic mat that will give your cat the tiniest shock. I was really worried at first because I didn't want to hurt him. But it's gross he is on the counters and with the baby coming and baby stuff around, it must stop.This mat gives him more of a scare than anything. I've hit it a few times and it just scares me because I forget about it or I'll test it to see if it's working and..surprise! It still is!!

All was great at first. He stayed off the counters for about two days. Then being the smarta$$ cat he is, he realized it wasn't on all of the counters but just in one particular place. So he started getting on the other side. I would move it...he would figure it out...then he would go back to the first place. He's so smart he has figured out the small places it doesn't go and can jump around the areas.

On Wednesday night I had a meltdown. I'm going to blame it on my pregnancy hormones and not that fact that I lost my mind. He kept getting on other parts of the empty counter (trying to get in the cabinets that he can open) and I had been off the chair trying to get him off at least 10 times. 

Finally I broke down. I started sobbing. I'm pretty sure words came out of my mouth such as, "why can't you just be good? Don't you love me? George was such a good cat. Why can't you be like him? Why did God live us a climber? He knows I like a clean house. Will you please just listen to me?"

I know he didn't understand a word I said but I swear he was looking right at me when I said it. I picked up him and took him upstairs to bed, where I shut the door (me and Oliver were in there too) because I couldn't handle him being downstairs by himself until J came home. Thankfully he curled up in bed and went sound asleep.

After telling J my discussion/meltdown with Wembley, he showed me this video. I couldn't help but laugh.

He is the cutest thing and is such a sweetheart in the mornings. I just don't get the climbing thing.

This weekend we are going to buy more child proof locks, another cat house, and a piece of plastic that you put under roll chairs in hopes that will trick him into thinking we bought more ScatMats (I can't afford 2 more at $75 a piece)!

Any cat whisperers out there? I need your help!