December is that time of year for all kinds of new and interesting things, including new pets. Sure, “Let’s get the kids a kitten and teach them responsibility along the way” is an oft-repeated refrain during the holiday season, and a great one at that.

But we’ll let you in on a little secret: no matter how much you think your children might learn by suddenly becoming pet owners, you probably have as much to learn as they do – especially if this is your first pet or, at least, your first new pet in a long time.

Let’s take kittens, for example, and one of their very favorite habits: jumping up on your kitchen counters and any other similar surface within their leaping range, which is considerable. And yet young, not-totally-trained cats love kitchen counters more than any other surface you might consider out of bounds, even if there’s nothing there for them to eat.

And while you might find that behavior cute at first, it’s one to be discouraged from the get-go to help prevent your new kitten from accidentally breaking dishes or ingesting something that could cause them harm. Plus, it’s more than a little unsanitary, no matter how faithful you are in keeping your cat clean.

So from our house to yours, here are several tips for “teaching” your kitten that your kitchen counters are strictly off limits:

• Cats hate the feeling of aluminum foil on their paws, so by lining your countertops with aluminum foil, you’ll encourage a bunch of quick exits. When it’s time to prepare a meal, simply fold up the kitty training aluminum foil and save it for later. Otherwise, this could become a pretty costly training method.

• Despite what you may have heard from others, spraying your cat with water isn’t terribly effective. Yes, they don’t like it, but not so much that it deters their hunting and exploring instincts. So here’s what one enterprising cat lover came up with as an alternative: grab a cookie sheet or two and place them on your countertops so only about half of their surface area is on the counter, with the other half hanging over the floor. Once a cat jumps up on one of those, it’s bound to go tumbling to the floor, cat and all, with a good loud crash to keep it company. Turns it out it’s a very effective teaching tool.

• Cats also hate the feeling of sandpaper on their feet, so if you have the patience, you have the means to discourage cat-on-the-counter syndrome until Fluffy finally gets the idea that jumping up on the kitchen counter is not going to be a pleasant experience.

• You can also make your kitchen counter less inviting in the first place. You know, doing things like closing your blinds so the counter doesn’t invite sun bathing, and clearing dishes immediately rather than leaving them in the sink.

• And lastly, cats are not overly found of peppermint spray, so by spraying some on your countertops, you will be helping to keep them on the floor and in search of some other area for mischief making.

If you’re a cat owner who has to leave your pet unattended all day while everyone’s off either working at school, you might want to consider installing one or more video inspection cameras so you can effectively keep your eye on them, especially while they’re still in the new kitten phase and not quite used to rules of the house. For information about video cameras and monitoring, or any other home security or surveillance product, contact Now Security Systems today.