Taaa-daaa! The counter-box compromise!

First, I would like to thank those of you who responded to my previous column asking for advice about keeping “monsters like this one off kitchen counters.” The prevailing wisdom seemed to counsel giving up. Cats are gonna do what cats are gonna do. I indicated in a comment (number 195 of 196) that Tracy and I were taking that sage advice and acknowledging that “when it comes to countertops, Tazzy lives here. We're just kitchen workers.”

And so we did just that, Tazzy strolling about on our countertop in the middle of the kitchen as if it had been put there with cats in mind rather than food preparation.

And then the people at Chewy send us our most recent shipment of canned cat food. I had hardly gotten the last can out of its box and into the drawer where we store the stuff when Tazzy took up residence in aforesaid box. It was left on the countertop overnight, and the next morning when I was in the kitchen making coffee, instead of taking her usual laps around the countertop, Tazzy once again assumed her position in the Chewy box.

The box has stayed on the countertop for the better part of a week now. Tazzy has declared it her box. The countertop has not been completely devoid of Taz footprints, but there has been a significant reduction in her casual strolls around its 15 square feet.

And so today I can announce that Tazzy has her counter-box, and we have our kitchen counter back…most of it, anyway. There is still the matter of cats doing what they’re gonna do, but an accommodation of sorts has been reached. Now when we’re chopping onions and celery and carrots for the white bean and rice soup or slicing hanger steak to serve for dinner, we can look down the counter at Tazzy presiding over it all from her perch in the counter-box.