to think it's disgusting to let your cat sit on the kitchen counter

[carlajean]

Following the dog licking plates thread, where I found it really interesting how it seemed to be equally divided between strong agreement and disagreement, I'm interested to know what people think of cats walking on kitchen counters. I think it's even more disgusting, even though we love our cat, but we have friend whose cat sits on the breadboard, yuck.

Sorry mrswolowitz but why go on a thread to say you weren't interested? I find 80% of aibu threads of no interest and do you know what I do? I don't go on them.

Whereas our cat lives in the kitchen. The way our house is laid out there's nowhere else for her to live, unless we shut we shut her in the garage. She has her litter tray and food in the garage and there's a cat flap through to the kitchen where her bed is.
However as I said she fortunately doesn't seem to venture onto the counters in the kitchen we actually use, though she does sit on top of the dishwasher..

piglet I know! My mates exw refuses to allow their kids in the house cos the whole place should come with a health warning! I had to drop something off there once, stood at the bottom of the drove so about 12-15 ft from the house and when she opened the door I nearly gagged at the smell if ammonia. It's her patients I feel sorry for cos she stinks of it too

Disgusting. I have two cats and they don't go on the worktops. One does like to come in and out of the window and has to momentarily put his paws on the work surface. I assume they don't walk on the worktops because I put their food bowls on there each night so they don't pig out, and it's there the next day. However my sister panders to her cat, when she has finished cooking she puts the glass lid down on the cooker and a chair pad on top for her cat to sit on the warm surface. Yuk.

Pigletmania I don't have a door to close, kitchen is off living room, no door, 1 cat, disinfectant, no problem.

Since I got the dog the cat jumps on there to escape her over enthusiastic loving of him.

He only jumps on one bit near the window, it's a bit that i never use for food prep and disinfect all the time.
I don't think it's that bad rather that than a soggy moggy with doggy love spit

it is pretty gross
I've never actually caught Dcat on the worksurfaces, but clean worksurfaces before use in the event that the sneaky beast in there when I'm not looking.

She'll openly have a crack at the dining table though, but only when guests are visiting, in a "Charlotte lets me do this all the time" way.

I don't 'let' my cat do it, but he does it anyway. Two of them don't do it because they actually listen to me, but one doesn't.

I clean before any food touches the surfaces.

Anyway, a bit of cat germs never killed anyone

At a friends house recently her cat sat on the cheese board, licked the cheese and knife then my fried proceeded to cut a slice of the well- licked cheese and offer it to me. I declined. >

Was the cheese blue veined, ie chock full of all the same sorts of microbes and things cats have on their feet :)

It really is extraordinary how humanity managed to survive the last few millennia with such huge risks to elf and safety!

(I take it all the disgusted brigade also put bootees on their cats feet when the cats sit on their laps, kids, etc etc)

We have 11 cats (was 12, lost one recently).
Some of them jump on the counters, they also sleep with us, obviously not all of them at once.
Cats don't have owners, they have staff.

piglet I saw that one and thought then that I would NEVER apply to go on that show! (which I had considered doing at one time).
I can't stand cats at the best of times, I honestly can't bring myself to eat anything in a house where there are animals (cats or dogs) in the kitchen, and if I saw a cat on the worktop I'd probably throw up. Yanbu OP, --even if I am

Ewww kissmy that is gross, having pets is no excuse for poor hygiene, even more you should be more clean. Everytime cat comes on my friends counter she removes him.

My cat sits on my kitchen top. She decided she wants her breakfast on there. She's v clean and I clean the kitchen top every day and always use chopping boards etc so don't prepare food directly on the surfaces.

She also has her own little food cupboard just for her food and she likes to sit in it sometimes.

I agree just for, cat hairs were found in the food I believe, and unemptied cat litter was found all round the house

our cats have always been discouraged from being on the work surfaces however, they are shut downstairs overnight and heaven knows what they do or where they go when they have free choice.

all surfaces get cleaned before and after eating/food prep here so I dont fuss about it too much

Actually at the moment I would love my 3 cats to be in the kitchen even on the work tops, as currently all 3 are on my sun lounger so i cant use it.

Pinky how do you know she hasent stepped in something, or just had a poo. To most pet owners their pet is clean!

She'll openly have a crack at the dining table though, but only when guests are visiting, in a "Charlotte lets me do this all the time" way.

- that made me laugh out loud and startled the cats who then tried to look cool

It's a bit like the reverse of what my kids used to say to visitors who were staying to eat "We never normally have X,Y, Z it's just because you're visiting" They thought this was a hilarious jape

I too often hear the tell-tale thud of the sneaky little gits legging it before I catch them. I shout, hiss at them and stamp my feet. All to no avail

Oops the sneaky little gits are my cats. Not my children!!!

Your poor children , hissing at them

We have cats and they don't go on the worksurface . When they were kittens we would yell and spray them with water if they jumped up. They soon stopped.
I absolutely love cats but agree with everyone who says cats on kitchen work surfaces is absolutely vile.

YANBU, really disgusting, makes me feel sick.

I can see that it's probably hard to avoid if you have acat.

We do not have any pets and never will so I don't have to worry about this.

Three cats. None of which I allow or have ever allowed on kitchen surfaces. Trained when young not to.

I get that its not the end of the world at all but I prefer them not to in my home.

My mums cat lives on kitchen windowsil so jumps up onto kitchen sides to get to it. Dont have a problem with this. Indoor cat. Mum keeps everything clean -no problem.

But whoever posted about the fleas and flea poo everywhere- fucking disgusting. I would somehow shut my cats out of kitchen if they were infested like that. That post made me boak. I wouldnt know if that were pepper on my pasta or flea shite. Grim.