I had one who would not stay off the counters so I used double stick tape for a few days and she got the hint. It does not hurt them but they don't like the feel.

When I'm not home the cat stays in his area, I know that because the door is shut. I learned to do that when a friend lost her cat due to a fire and of course no one was home and the cat hid, no way to find the cat to save it. In one room when no one is home, and at night, at least we know where the cat will be have a better chance of saving him.

I just have to laugh at all the comments! Cats do what cats want to do. My cat, a calico, will do what she darn well wants to do.
We don't train them - they train us!
She sleeps where she wants to, when she wants to, and most of the time it is where either fabric or a quilt is,if there happens to be both - even better!

Gotta love them!! My Siamese have me well trained. At this minute one is sleeping on a wet sweater that I was drying and shaping. Guess she doesn't think it needs shaping and I thought cats didn't like wet "stuff" :-o

Mine will jump in the shower with anyone if the door is left open! I can use a hand shower and give him a good bath and he'll just stand there. He hates the blow dryer though.

My cat doesn't get on the table either. She waits for the dogs to give her the all clear and then she does! Evidence: soft black hair on the runner.

I've had 3 cats over 45 years. They were and are NOT welcome anyplace food is prepared or served. Each learned because I was vigilant with a spray bottle of water when they could first jump high enough. They also don't get on coffee tables, end tables or dressers. And my dogs (from daschund to great dane and now a retriever) are not allowed on the furniture. It's like teaching a child not to touch.

a big YES!

Sounds like you need to make many table runners. Perhaps the cat would like his own custom table runner. Just whip it off the table and replace when you have dinner or company.

My cat isn't allowed on the table, but he does love to help me work with my fabrics!!

Mine have become very well trained with the use of a squirt gun- they hate water to be squirted on them, and we made it clear, when they were so young last fall and brought them in, NO BEING ON THE TABLE OR COUNTERS - and it has stuck! we doused them with water about 3 times and they have never gone up on the table since.

My kitties are not allowed on the table, but at night........... I started putting aluminum foil across the table and now they don't get on the table. I only had to use the foil for a couple of nights.

The foil is a great idea. My cat doesn't sleep on the table, but he routinely gets on the counter--found a mouse there once and just can't give up looking for more.

You are certainly right about cats being trainable. Our gray &
white (she felt like velvet) decided she wanted to make her bed
on our diningroom table. She was full grown when we got her.
I would give her a good smack and raising my voice say 'no'
After a few days I didn't have to touch her, just do the 'no'
thing, and she would jump down. Next didn't have to do or
say anything, but when she saw me she would jump down.
Next step she just quit doing it at all.
I quilt in a hoop (in my lap). She would try to get in my lap
while I was quilting, and you know that didn't work. She learned
quite quickly that if I wasn't quilting, she was free to come up.
She was a little different, never ever bothered anything that
we left out, butter, tuna etc, only wanted her cat foodl. Never
wound around our feet, but followed us like a little puppy dog.'
She's been gone two years, and we still miss her, but you all
know how that goes

Had a cat who thought the water spray was a fun game, loved the way the tin foil sounded, but I took a flat sheet of cardboard and made loops of masking tape sticky side out. I put it on the table or where ever I wanted to keep him off of, and it only took one jump up he hit the sticky tape and never went up there again!!

Yep, same here. Cats are NOT allowed on the table or kitchen counters or computer table. But he doesn't ask me and I find him there when I come home. For some reason he hasn't tried sitting on the sewing machine with me.

honey i dont have this problem with cats and table runners it is dogs and quilts an afagans

The water bottle works until I'm away from home. Deaf and stubborn are not good combinations. He has his own cardboard box in each room. Cat furniture! Place mats and table runners are wonderful things to slide on when mom's away. The scoundrel stole a chicken pin cushion I bought to give as a door prize at my next book signing. Came home and found it in one of his cardboard boxes. He'd dug it out of a plastic bag full of other items. Did this three days in a row. I decided the door prize belonged to him.

hello...i have 6 baby kittens ,,if any one wants one ,they r free,thanks all girls

supersoaker 5000 will teach cats to mind. i taught mine to sleep at night with one. i was in college at the time in a one room efficiency. she would have her running yowling "fits" at night. i slept with the super soaker and after a coupla of nights, she would just come to bed and sleep.

Have you made them their own little quilt? My cats love blankets, throws, fabric of any kind, but especially if it's soft & fluffy. Sometimes they'll claim a spot for a while, then get bored with it & swap for a new place or claim the other cat's spot! I don't if it's the season, but they seem to get bored & like a change every now & then. A pet-bed size quilt is easily washed & moveable. Our vet's office loves them for their "hospital" patients.

Cat is not allowed on table, but loves to lay on my ironing board, especially if I have a project left on it over night. I'm forever trying to get rid of cat & dog hair off my projects. I go through alot of lint rollers.

I don't have that problem of cats sleeping on anything :lol:
I have 4 dogs and they stay on the floor. :lol:
(sorry I couldn't reisist)

We have 3 cats and a spray bottle of water that sits on the counter (island). All I have to do is put my hand on the bottle and they are gone. They are allowed to sit in the counter chairs and watch ... which they frequently do. But they will also adopt the smallest scrap of fabric to sit on.

LOL that is so true, my mom would say my cat was well behaved, but only when i was home , soon as i left, jumping on tables, etc.. stuff she wouldn't do in front of me. She'd hear it for sure. I have mine sort of trained, when she wants to be

So will my dogs! I have come home to find that the malamute did the 'circle dance' on my bed to lie down, and he's never been allowed up on it. Ever notice, that all pets wait until you are deeply attached to them, before they pull these stunts???

I didn't think the cats got on the counters until I saw the feetprint on the white counter after they had walked around on the newspaper...kind of hard to ignore that evidence.

If we put something new on the table and leave the room, they have to check it out. It's better to set it on the floor then put it up to save the hassle. (yes they are rotten it seems).

They do not bother any type of food, meats, dairy etc left on the table since they don't get "people food", but if you sit down with a vanilla wafer, you're fair game.

I don't do table runners...my tables are runneth over with "stuff" right now.

JoAnn's has a very flexible pliable clear vinyl. I cover my table topper with it as you never know where my cat will show up next.

I use those sticky live mouse traps to let them know they can't go there, or they have plastic ones now that are really easy to use also. I put paper over them, so they don't get caught, but they don't go back either.

Murphy I want you to come train my 3yr old kitten the only time she stays off my wip is if I put fresh food in her bowl every 15 min.I don"t need that much exercise :-P

I had to make a wooobbie for my 17 yr old cat. she sleeps on it while I sew n growls at tho dogs in they so much as look at her blanket.

I have three cats and two of them like to be where I am if they aren't playing and chasing each other. In my sewing area I have a plastic storage container on top of a cedar chest. Fella my big and oldest cat (7 yrs March 13th) likes the heighth so I put an old pillow with some old clothes on top of the pillow and that is where he sleeps when I am sewing. He even sleeps there when I am not sewing. The other kitty, Peaches (avatar pic) likes to lay on the bed on top of stash that I have covered with a sheet.

When in the living room where I have another machine on the fireplace hearth, if a fire is burning and I am sewing there, there is a cat bed on top of two boxes I stacked and that is where Fella will be and Peaches on top of my blue jean jacket close by. I have cat beds and kitty cube all over the house and depending on season they change their favorite spots.

When the dining room is not in use (but open), the bottom is face-up ... and when the table is being set, the table runner is flipped over to the public side. Sassafras (the cat) knows the rules, but doesn't always follow them, so this is how I handle this particular issue.

Sorry, mine loves to be sprayed with water, everything is a game to him, nothing works. and yes, he does know what I'm saying to him. He just doesn't care!
Sandy

My cat loves to sleep on my table runners. I just let him--he is getting up years so.... :D

About the tissue can you give her a piece of gift tissue all her own?
My two cats loved christnas day! When I unwrapped the presents I gave them the tissue paper and boxes to play with. They played and played the entire day long. When evening came and I picked up all the bits of tissue and boxes, they watched me with the most sad eyes you can imagine!

Somehow I managed to convince my two cats that getting on the table was forbidden...and I always left it empty so they would not be temped...
I had upholstered dining room chairs though, and they would get on those, and just look, making sure there was nothing interesting in sight - and I would mostly chase them off...
After a while i realized that when i came downstairs in the morning I would hear two thumps. So I came down for a few days making a lot of noise and talking. One day, i crept quietly partway down, and there they were sleeping in the chairs. When I made a noise - thump, thump, two half asleep cats hit the floor, managing to look terribly guilty at being caught...
I laughed! because I loved them and really didn't care if they slept in the chairs! And so it went on..
they never did get over their daily guilt trip!

I think this is why I don't eat at anyones house that has cats...

My sister once bought a kitten from a clerk at a store like a dimestore. We put it in the basement, where we think it slept in the ashes from the furnace - We put an orange kitten downstairs and got a dark gray one out! So we gave it a bath every day. It liked the bath, and as far as I know, it never washed itself.
Why did we put it in the basement? It wreaked havoc while we were at work!
So, some kittens do like being wet!

Cats seem to love clean! and a pinch only! of catnip inside
their bed,pillow or blanket will attract them to claim it for theirs!