Author - Mr. Catmandu

It’s 6:30 PM. You’re grating some cheese to top off a nice fish stew that you’ve been working on for the past three hours. Your turn your back on your cooking for a second to check your recipe. When you get back, behold!

Your cat is up in your business, eating your fish and cheese! Drat!

But what do you do? How do you stop your cat from constantly ruining your fish and cheese dinners by jumping up onto your kitchen counters?

It may not hurt to consider just why it is your cat feels compelled to get onto your counter. Maybe your tasty-smelling chow was enough to entice him up there in this case. But there may be other times when you’ve found him on the counter, sunning himself or knocking around a salt shaker, seemingly with no motivation other than to get on your nerves.

Why Do Cats Jump on Counters?

Cats keep a short list of reasons for jumping up on kitchen counters written on a small piece of paper folded nicely and placed in their vest pocket. Unfortunately, most cats forget to wear their vest on a daily basis. The ones who remember to wear their vest typically have butlers that dry clean their clothing for them, so their owners never think to check the pocket for any secret lists. But we’ve managed to intercept a copy, and here it is.

Instinctual Love of Heights

By their very nature, cats are attracted to heights. They are natural born climbers, and if there’s something in your house that looks like it can be scaled, your cat is probably going to give it a shot. There’s not much you can do to stop them either.

A cat’s love of heights comes from the fact that he typically hunts for his food. A cat can survey a larger area if he’s perched up high than he can when he’s crouching in the tall grass. A high lookout post also prevents predators from attacking or sneaking up on a cat, keeping them safe. As a result, cats tend to seek out high spaces for the associated feeling of security they provide. Also, cats probably just like to feel superior to their human owners. 

Interesting / Delicious Stuff

There are a lot of interesting items on your countertop, including food and small items that your cat would love to bat around. Delicious foods may be enough to tempt even the most well-behaved cat into jumping up onto your kitchen counter. There may be other items up there that are especially interesting to cats, including spice bottle, utensils, and other small things that a cat would love to bat around like an artificial mouse.

Access to Fresh Water

Cats love running water. In the wild, a cat would never drink out of a stagnant puddle formed in the mud. They would find a stream or spring, drinking from a source of running water.

While this may be simply because running water tastes better, it also serves to protect a cat’s health, as stagnant water is much more likely to contain bacteria or insects that may cause illness. This is why it’s so important to keep your cat’s water dish clean and to change the water regularly.

If your kitchen counter is connected to a sink, your cat is probably going to want to check that sink out. Whether he’s lapping up the remaining drops on the sink basin floor after you’ve just rinsed the dishes or drinking greedily from a leaking faucet, your cat is probably going to show your kitchen sink more interest than an ordinary bowl of stagnant water. And he’s going to need to hop up onto your kitchen counter to do it.

Boredom / Attention

Maybe your cat is just bored, so he’s jumping up onto the counter looking for excitement. This may be excitement in the form of exploring the countertop surfaces, or it may be excitement derived in the frantic response the jump elicits in you, the owner.

Cats can very easily confuse our responses to their unwanted behavior as invitations to play. Cats regularly play fight with one another, so for you to quickly pick a cat up and set them on the ground after they’ve jumped up onto the kitchen counter may be construed as a play fight initiation. Your cat may be jumping up on the counter to get you to pay attention to them or to play with them.

How Do I Keep My Cat off of the Counter?

Try the methods listed below the next time your cat gets in the way while you’re chopping up some salmon:

1. Start Early

Don’t let your cat get into the habit of getting onto the counter before working to correct the behavior. The sooner you choose to confront your cat about the situation, the easier it will be to correct the behavior. This means refusing to pet your cat or award them with affection whenever they jump onto the kitchen counter, no matter how difficult that may seem. 

2. Keep Your Counters Clean

Don’t leave any spare food out on the counter. Make sure to put away any small objects, especially sharp knives that may potentially hurt your cat. If your counters are full of little trinkets and scraps of food, your cat may confuse these items for toys and snacks. But if your counters are empty, your cat will probably get bored with them pretty quickly.

3. Give Your Cat Climbing Alternatives

Cats are gonna climb, and there’s not much you can do to stop them. Why not give them something that they’re allowed to climb all over? Provide your cat with climbing alternatives such as cat trees and other types of cat furniture and he will be less interested in climbing onto your kitchen counters.

4. Use Commercial Repellants

There are a number of commercial repellents available that can be used to keep your cat out of areas where you don’t want him to be. These repellents can be useful if you have a particularly determined cat who is unfazed by some of the other methods proposed on this list.

Here are a couple of commercial repellents that work well for keeping cats off of kitchen counters:

 SENTRY Stop That! For Cats

PetSafe SSSCAT Spray Pet Deterrent

5. Evaluate Your Cat’s Feeding Schedule

Hungry cats are much more likely to show interest in the food on your counters, especially during meal preparation. If your cat tends to jump up on your counter while you’re preparing dinner, consider feeding your cat right before you start cooking. Your cat will be too distracted with his own meal to bother you while you prepare yours.

Once your cat finishes eating, he’ll probably groom himself and take a nap. This gives you plenty of time to finish fixing your meal without any interruptions from your cat.

6. Provide Sufficient Entertainment

Make sure your cat has plenty of toys and other things to keep him busy. Also, make sure you’re spending plenty of time playing with him. A cat that jumps up onto counters may just be looking for attention from you, or trying to get you to play with him. Try to beat him to the counter jump, playing with him beforehand and tiring him out so he’s less inclined to get onto your counters.

If your cat is not particularly interested in toys, consider getting him a food puzzle. If your cat is still interested in food that may be stored on your kitchen counter, a food puzzle may be enough to keep him entertained while resting on an acceptable surface, such as the floor.

7. Restrict Access

If your cat simply cannot resist the smell of food while you’re cooking, you may need keep him out of the kitchen during meal preparation. This may mean shutting the doors, or enclosing your cat in another room temporarily.

Once you have finished your work in the kitchen and cleaned off your counters, you can let your cat back in. If your cat is only interested in your food, then he should have lost interest in the kitchen counters once the food has been put away.

8. Use Positive Reinforcement

Reward your cat whenever you observe him jumping up onto cat furniture in lieu of the kitchen counters. Use treats and affection, giving your cat plenty of pets. Your cat will begin to associate his behavior with treats and will do it automatically, abandoning his previous fascination with your countertops.

White kitchen sink interior

9. Modify the Counter Surface

Modify the surface of the counter using a material that your cat hates to walk on. Examples including aluminum foil, double-sided tape, or plastic matting. Ideally, the surface should be modified as close to the counter edge as possible. This way the modified surface is the first thing your cat comes into contact with when he tries to jump onto the counter. If he dislikes the surface, he will jump down immediately.

Aluminum foil is a good option since it is cheap and accessible, but it doesn’t look very nice. Plastic mats work well since they are easily cleanable and are less ugly than aluminum foil. Double-sided tape placed on the outer perimeter of the counter also works well, but make sure to choose a brand that won’t leave a residue and won’t tear off part of your counter. You may want to test out the tape on a part of the counter that is not usually visible before using the tape across the entire countertop.

10. Don’t Resort to Punishment

Don’t try to punish your cat. Negative reinforcement is not an effective training method. Avoid using a spray bottle, yelling at your cat, or tossing your cat off the counter angrily. All of these things will just scare and confuse your cat, and they will not address the behavior effectively. 

There’s nothing quite like the sound of a cat’s meow. With just one seemingly simple vocalization, cats are able to convey a whole range of emotions to their owners, including hunger, fear, or just a simple desire to be noticed. But where did this behavior come from, and why do cats do it?

The Origin of Meowing

Kittens begin meowing very shortly after birth. They use meowing as a way of getting their mother’s attention, signaling their presence so that the mother can keep tabs on each member of her litter. They also use it to indicate when they are hungry, allowing the mother cat to respond by feeding them.

Interestingly, meowing and similar vocalizations, such as purring, are common among newborns from a variety of wildcat species. However, only domesticated cats (Felis catus) retain this behavior into adulthood. This is an example of a phenomenon known as neoteny. We discussed this phenomenon in our article about kneading, another behavior that wildcats abandon as kittens but that adult domestic cats keep doing over the course of their lives.

While cats meow at people with varying frequency, they don’t usually meow at each other in a friendly manner. Cats use a variety of other vocalizations to communicate with one another, including yowls, hisses, and growls, but they refrain from using the variety of casual meows that we as humans are used to hearing. Cats typically only meow at each other out of immediacy, such as when they are in a confrontation with one another or when they are play fighting and one cat begins biting the other a little bit too hard.

Human Interpretation of Cat Meows

Meowing can seem complex language between cats and humans. Cats use meows to communicate a variety of needs and desires, and it’s up to their human owners to decipher their specific meaning. Fortunately, this process is not as difficult as it sounds, and cats are able to get their message across pretty effectively.

Most cat owners can tell the difference between a “let’s play” meow, an “I’m hungry” meow, and a “well, hello” meow. Cats use meows to let us know when they want us to open a door for them, feed them, play with them, pick them up, give them a treat, scratch them, scoop their litter box, and a litany of other tasks. Or, they may also use meows to let us know that they’ve witnessed a murder. It depends on the situation.

Since cats aren’t learning English anytime soon, this is their most effective way of getting us to pay attention to them and to do what they want. Cats constantly signal their presence by meowing at humans, perhaps as a way of avoiding getting stepped on or kicked by mistake since they sit below a human’s normal eye level.

Cat Conversations

In 2015, researchers from the UK published a study that evaluated how humans respond to cat meows and how well we are able to tell what our cat is trying to indicate based on the meow alone. The study found that cat owners are able to predict the context of their cat’s meows slightly more than chance would predict. However, individuals were not able to predict the context of the meows of other, unidentified cats.

In other words, we can get good at figuring out what our own cat means when she meows, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to other cats. Other cats may meow differently than ours under an identical context. You need to have familiarity with a cat to be able to decipher the intent behind her meows.

Types of Cat Meows and Their Meanings

Cats are able to adjust the tonality of their meow to indicate different things. They can adjust the pitch, volume, and frequency of their meows to match the intensity of their need and their current emotional state. A cat that hasn’t been fed in a while may meow intensely, frequently, and at a high pitch. On the other hand, a cat that would just like a few scratches on the back may meow much more casually at a lower pitch, indicating that the need to be filled is not quite as urgent.

The following list is far from exhaustive, but we’ve tried to assemble some of the most common meows that cats typically make.

Hunger / Feeding Meows

Cat owners are very familiar with the sound of a cat begging for food. Here’s an example of a young cat meowing in anticipation of being fed:

As a cat’s hunger and desire to be fed increases, the pitch, volume, and frequency of their meows will increase as well.

Casual Greeting Meows

Many cats will meow when their owner enters a room after a period of absence. They may also meow upon entering a room. As far as we can tell, the purpose of these meows is simply to get a human’s attention and to make them known of the cat’s presence. These meows often blur into other cat vocalizations, including trills and purrs. The common thread behind these meows is that they are delivered with a low frequency, moderate volume, and at a moderate pitch, indicating the lack of a sense of urgency.

Here’s an example of a cat meowing casually as a greeting to their owner:

Fear / Anger / Pain Meows

Cats meow aggressively whenever they feel threatened, upset, or hurt. These types of meows are often very easy to identify by their screeching, piercing tone, high volume, and rapid frequency. They’re usually combined with other vocalizations, including growling, hissing, and spitting/snorting.  

Here is a compilation of angry cat sounds (WARNING: Be careful playing the sound from this video over your computer speakers if your cat is around. He may respond as though there’s an angry cat in the room and become angry and defensive himself):

Invitation to Play Meows

Cats will also meow at their owners when they are ready to play or when they are craving affection. These meows are similar to those exhibited as a casual greeting or when demanding to be fed. They tend to be lower in tone and can vary in frequency.

Here is an example of a cat meowing as an invitation to give them some scratches:

Loneliness/Anxiety Meows

Sometimes, a cat may meow out of loneliness. This is especially true for cats who have been left alone for an extended period of time. These types of meows are common during the middle of the night, especially among younger cats. Since they are still full of energy but their owner is asleep, they may feel as though they are alone and begin meowing for companionship.

Here is an example of a cat meowing out of loneliness:

How Much Meowing is Too Much?

Cats are like people: some of them are noisier than others. You may be the owner of a particularly chatty cat, or a very quiet cat that rarely meows audibly. Factors that may impact the frequency and tonality of your cat’s meow include breed, anatomy, environment, andpersonality.

Cat meowing behaviors can change over time as your cat ages or goes through lifestyle changes. I have personally experienced cat meowing behaviors changing with age and environmental conditions. My household cat growing up, Rocket, meowed infrequently until she passed the age of ten. In her old age, she became much more vocal, meowing casually as a greeting and whenever she was hungry and ready to be fed.

My current cat, Hunter, also experienced something similar. He spent his entire life with another companion cat, Keanu, who was the loudmouth of the pair. Unfortunately, Keanu was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2016 and had to be put to sleep shortly thereafter. After Keanu’s passing, Hunter gradually became more vocal, taking on the role of meowing in anticipation of feeding that Keanu used to fill. He also delivers far more casual greeting meows than he used to when Keanu was around.

Impact of Breed on Frequency of Meowing

Cat “talkativeness” also varies based on breed. As a rule of thumb, short-haired breeds tend to be a bit noisier than long-haired breeds. Of course, breed alone does not determine how often a cat will meow. There are plenty of examples of noisy long-haired breeds and quiet short-haired breeds. Here is a list of cat breeds that are known to be traditionally quiet or talkative:

• Quiet Cats:  Persians, Blue Chartreux, Russian Blue, Norwegian Forest Cat, Bengals, British Shorthairs
• Talkative Cats: Siamese, Oriental Shorthairs, Burmese, Tonkinese, Japanese Bobtail, Sphinx

Potential Health Issues That May Result in Frequent Meowing

While some cats may meow frequently just to hear the sounds of their own voices, as a cat owner you should be on the lookout for any changes to your cat’s usual meowing patterns. There are several medical conditions which may cause your cat to meow more frequently than normal, including:

• Deafness: In the same way that a human who is going deaf will begin speaking more loudly, a cat who is going deaf will begin meowing more loudly
• Feline Alzheimer’s: Cats may begin meowing if they become confused or disoriented as a result of cognitive impairment.
• Separation Anxiety: Cats will meow when they are lonely
• Thyroid, Kidney, or Heart Disorders: Each of these conditions may cause increased vocalizations

Cats may also experience increased hunger or thirst as a result of an ailment, or they may be in physical pain. Each of these symptoms may cause a cat to meow more frequently.

If you are concerned about your cat’s meowing frequency, you should bring them to a vet immediately. This is especially true if you have noticed a recent change in your cat’s typical meowing patterns. Cats can suffer from laryngitis if they meow too frequently, as may be the case if they are in pain or distress. Keep in mind that many cats meow frequently by nature, including healthy, playful kittens and cats that are adapting to new environments or recent changes to their lifestyle. Still, if you have a concern, ask your veterinarian to take a look.

Meowing at Night

Sometimes, cats will engage in frequent midnight meow sessions. Even worse, these “midnight” sessions actually occur closer to 4 AM. There are a number of reasons why cats do this.

Instinct

Cats are instinctually programmed to hunt in the early, pre-dawn morning. It’s cooler, allowing them to expend energy and recover more quickly than they would in the afternoon heat. This is also when they’re typically starting to get pretty hungry if they haven’t eaten for a while. A cat that wants to hunt but can’t may meow in frustration.

Hunger

A hungry cat will meow as a way of getting its owner to feed him. If your cat is meowing for their early morning meal at 4 AM, you may want to consider giving them a later feeding time the evening beforehand.

Recent Change in Lifestyle

If you just moved to a new location, got a new pet, lost a long-time pet, or have instituted some other major lifestyle change, your cat may respond with night meowing.

Should I Meow Back?

Many cat owners talk to their cats. In fact, we tend to adopt certain patterns and types of speech when addressing our cat, similar to the way we may speak to a baby or small child. We tend to speak more musically and with a higher pitch when talking to cats than when speaking with other humans. But little is currently known about the vocal interactions between humans and cats and their associated impact on cat vocalizations.

In 2016, a research team in Sweden received funding to complete a study that focuses entirely on the vocal exchanges that occur between humans and cats. The project, entitled “Meowsic,” aims to evaluate melody in human-cat communication. They plan on observing how cats and humans use prosody, or patterns of rhythm, tone, and sound, when communicating with one another. This study will help us understand the complexities behind human-feline communications.

Other Cat Vocalizations

Meows are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cat vocalizations. It’s difficult to talk about meowing without discussing the other sounds that cats make. This is because meowing often blends into other vocalizations, making it difficult to distinguish between the two.

Chatter

The most common place to hear a cat chatter is on a windowsill. Cats typically only chatter when potential prey is in sight, usually a bird. Chattering resembles the sound a bird makes. There are a number of theories as to why cats chatter, but the prevailing reasons are: anticipation of a hunt, frustration, or excitement.

Trill / Chirrup / Murmur

Trilling (or chirruping) is a mix between a purr and a meow. Cats usually do it when they’re in a good mood, and they use it as a casual greet or an invitation to scratch or play. Unlike meowing, cats do not trill to get attention.

Growl /  Snarl

Cats growl or snarl if they feel threatened. It is usually a precursor to aggression, and it is used as a warning that a cat is about to attack. Be careful around a growling cat. Cats may growl out of territorial possessiveness, irritation, anger, or fear.

Hiss

Like growling, cats hiss when they are feeling upset or threatened. Always observe caution around a hissing cat.

Caterwaul

Caterwauling is a sound that resembles howling or wailing. There are a few reasons why a cat may make a caterwaul noise, including a desire to breed (if the cat is not spayed or neutered), pain, or fear. Caterwauling and yowling are very similar, but caterwauling has the distinction of being associated with breeding.

Purr

Cats purr whenever they’re feeling happy and content. Purring is another example of neoteny, and it is only rarely observed among wildcats. Purring can also signal that a cat is in extreme pain or distress, so be aware if you notice your cat purring much more than usual. Typically, though, a purring cat is a happy cat.

Yowl

Cats yowl when they are feeling lonely or upset. The yowl is another common vocalization among cats that are preparing to be aggressive.

Nothing is quite as soothing as the sight of a kneading cat. Cats like to knead before they go to sleep, and they seem to have a pretty nice time doing it. They’re usually wearing a blissful, half-asleep expression, and sometimes their eyes are fully closed. They may even be drooling a little bit.

But have you ever stopped and wondered why cats knead? It’s a very strange behavior, and it doesn’t seem to have any clear purpose. Maybe they’re trying to soften up a space before they lie in it? Maybe their stretching out their paws before bed? Maybe they just like the feeling of digging their claws into something soft? 

What Does it Look Like When a Cat Kneads?

Before we get started, it’s extremely important that we all know what kneading looks like. I advise that you drop everything you are doing immediately and watch the following, er, educational video to get a solid, academic understanding of what cat kneading looks like:

Feel free to watch that a few times to really let it sink in.

Feel smarter? Good.  I knew the only reason you clicked on this article was in the hope that there would be a 2-minute video of non-stop cat kneading. Now that we’ve cleared that up, we may proceed.

Why Do Cats Knead?

When kittens are first born, their only source of nutrition is their mother’s milk. They are still blind and deaf, and they rely heavily on their other senses to survive. This includes their sense of touch. During nursing, newborn kittens gather around their mother and begin pressing on the mother’s teats to stimulate milk production. They churn their paws back and forth, extending and retracting their claws. This is their first introduction to the kneading process, and they are able to do it before they learn to hear or see. Kittens will continue to knead throughout the weening process. But they don’t stop there. Instead, they continue kneading well into their adult lives.

The theory that kneading is an instinctual behavior related to stimulation of milk production during kittenhood makes sense, but why would cats continue kneading long after they have stopped relying on their mother for food? Why wouldn’t they just grow out of it if it serves no function to an adult cat?

According to researchers, one of the side effects of domestication of cats is the persistence of juvenile, or “kitten-like,” behaviors. Wild cats tend to abandon juvenile behaviors as they mature into adulthood. Domestic cats, however, hang onto them, and many behaviors that domestic cats learn as kittens persist throughout their entire adult lives. The retention of juvenile behaviors into adulthood is known as neoteny, and it’s not just observed in cats. A variety of other domesticated animal species, including dogs and horses, exhibit varying degrees of neoteny as well.

Photo courtesy of Rich More on Flickr

Examples of Neoteny in Cats

Examples of other juvenile behaviors that domesticated cats retain into adulthood include:

• Friendliness towards other species: Kittens can be trained to be friendly with birds, dogs, and even squirrels well into adulthood, even though they would normally become mortal enemies with these species in the wild.
• Meowing: Wildcats meow as kittens, but rarely meow as adults.
• Greeting you calmly with a tail facing straight up: This gesture is typically only done by wildcat kittens when greeting their mother. Wildcats drop this behavior as they enter adulthood, but adult domesticated cats continue using it as a friendly greeting.
• Kitten-like physical features, such as big eyes: In some cases, species of cats have been bred by humans to retain kitten-like features. For example, Scottish Folds have large eyes, and their folded ears are very similar to the ears of a kitten.

In a natural environment, behaviors and characteristics such as these may leave a wildcat vulnerable to attack by an enemy. But in a domesticated environment, your cat can continue to exhibit them without any fear of repercussion.

So, the next time someone asks you why cats knead, you can answer them in one word: neoteny!

What Does it Mean When My Adult Cat Kneads?

Cats tend to knead when they are on very soft surfaces that may resemble a mother cat’s belly. Also, kneading is very often a precursor to sleep. After feeding from their mother, kittens typically go right to sleep. There is a very high probability that cats use kneading as a sort of pre-sleep ritual, and the process itself makes them tired since their sense memory links the motion to the post-feeding sleepiness they experienced as kittens.

Cats seem to use kneading as a means of showing affection towards their owners and other people they like. It’s a behavior they would never do to a person they don’t trust, since it places them in a very vulnerable position. It’s their way of saying, “hey, you remind me of my mother, and that makes me feel good!” So the next time a cat kneads on you, remember that they’re just being friendly and try to ignore their claws digging in to your thigh.

Kneading probably feels pretty good to the cat too. Similar to the way a cat seems to associate purring with a feeling of contentedness, cats seem to associate kneading with a feeling of safety, security, and general well-being. It also gives them a chance to stretch out their muscles, which can help them relax before settling down for a quick (or long) nap.

Some cats may even get a little bit carried away when kneading. Several cats are known to drool during the process. It’s very cute to think about them becoming so blissed out while they’re kneading that they just start to drool in ecstasy, like a kitty-cat version of Homer Simpson.

Photo courtesy of Johanna on Flickr.

What Do You Call a Cat Kneading?

No no, that’s not the start of a joke. People have quite a few names for cat kneading. Here’s a list of some of the more common ones:

• Making Biscuits
• Making Muffins
• Making Bread
• Happy Paws
• Tenderizing
• Paw Paddling

Have any other names for cat kneading? Leave them in the comments!