Adorable! My cat Kasai loves to hide in my kitchen cabinets. Unfortunately, my cabinets are very old and the doors just swing open on a breath, so he has no problem opening the doors and climbing in whenever he wants to. Good thing he's so cute. :)

These are adorable kittens, naturally, but.....cats in cookware and on counters? Am I the only person that's a little grossed out by that?

we had a cat growing up, and he LOVED to sit on the opened door to the dishwasher and lick the plates as we filled it up with dirty plates. it's a good thing the dishwasher was a good one!! haha (he was such a weirdo, i suppose like all cats :P)

Texan: No, you aren't the only one that is grossed out by that. Cute yes, but YUK.

I wholly approve of this way to start the morning. More cats on AT. Adult cats are adorable too. Our kitty Ives has an eating area in the pantry that is designed using the principles of Feng Shui. He has hanging toys above his food bowl and a box he sits on while he waits to be served.

I agree, more cats and kittens on AT! And I'm sure those people who photographed their kittens in the bowls are going to wash them, no need to get grossed out!

I would love to see more cats, but just not in the kitchn! Maybe walking or sunning in the the herb garden? Watching the urban chickens? Cat hair floats like, well, cat hair & gets in food, no matter how much you clean. Just can't get the litter box paws out of my head! ;-)

Absolutely love cats - as long as they aren't on kitchen tables or counters. (Ever look at stuff through a microscope? Want to eat that stuff?)

I once lived in an apartment where mice would come out at night and play in the cast-iron skillet that I left out on my stovetop all the time. It took me awhile to realize that the "crumbs" I was rinsing out of it before use were actually little mice poops. (Urgh.) So that's a case in which I wouldn't mind a cat in my kitchen!

And in another place I lived, my two roommates got kittens. They were cute as buttons, and enjoyed lounging in our deep kitchen sink (at least until I turned the water on). I would patiently remove them from the counter several times a day.

I like critters, but not on my cooking surfaces. They can hang out on the floor with the rest of us. :)

The first photo really gives me palpitations. Besides the hygiene of having animals near food surfaces allowing a cat onto a cooking surface is asking for serious trouble. As the loving human to a very wild cat who used to love to dash across the peninsula where the cooktop was as a kitten I can tell you the potential danger it is. They are like little children and need constant supervision and cannot tell the difference of off or on. Cute cats, adorable kittens but away from the heat.

Once I woke at night, hearing something unnatural in the kitchen, I grabbed a baseball bat and crept slowly in that direction. Flicked on the light and.... SHOCK & HORROR... my cat had opened the kitchen cabinet, jumped inside, unfolded the tortilla chip bag, had his head and upper body inside, and was happily crunching away. He, in turn, was shocked at the site of me (or ashamed of being caught? ha! cats have no guilt!) and tried to extricate himself from the bag with very little success. He actually had to wait there, inside the cabinet, for me to cross the kitchen and remove him from the bag. Crisis averted but I know I didn't sleep again for the rest of that night. Afterward I hid the tortilla chips inside the oven but then I'd find him on top of the stove, trying to paw open the door, so I moved them to a jar where he quickly figured out how to pry off the lid. He's long gone now and, boy, I sure miss him! Especially when there's noone to steal my tortilla chips.

While I disapprove of the animals in a circus, if a lion can be trained to jump through a firey hoop, why can't a cat be (lovingly) trained to stay off the kitchen counters?

Yes, I have a dog and not a cat.

Confession: My cat used to love to lie on the middle of the gas stove in the winter, enjoying the warmth from the pilot light. Every morning I would reach for the tea kettle, shoo her off the stove, and then turn on the burner. One morning our timing was off, and her tail wasn't quite out of the way when I turned on the burner. For a millisecond, her tail was actually on fire, and she ended up with a tiny little patch of about 20 hairs scorched. It didn't seem to be too traumatic for her, since she hopped right back up there 10 minutes later. But I will never get over it.
Moral of the story: be careful, kittens in the kitchen!

And RUCY, I'm familiar with that night-time noise. My cats will find a bag of animal crackers on any shelf in my pantry, and they go wild in it. Those little cannibals.

@Rucy - that's a hilarious story! I'm constantly trying to keep our cat out of the kitchen. Whenever I bake (multiple times a week) I have to cool my treats in a closed cupboard to prevent him from sneaking a scone, cookie, etc. He has a love for butter!

A cat CAN be trained to stay off the kitchen counter and/or tables. That's one of the first things I taught my cats for their and our own safety. They haven't jumped on the kitchen counter ever since they were kittens. I just squirted some water on them with a spray bottle before they jumped or when they were already on the counter.

Yeah, cats in the kitchen is yucky. Where have there paws been...CAT LITTER! Barf.

These Kitties are adorable! I agree caution should be taken with our furry friends near hot elements.

As for the grossed out people...take a moment to think of how often you or a spouse or your kids or frinds have dumped their purse, backpack, reusable grocery bags, store bags onto the countertop in your kitchen.

Now think of all the places you've put your purse/bags etc down on. Now think of the awesome transfer of all those germs onto the countertop which you probably don't think to wipe down. (http://www.snopes.com/medical/disease/purse.asp).

At least my cat washes it's paws, your purse doesn't ;)

I adore cats, but they do not belong on counters and cookware. Besides the sanitation factor - its DANGEROUS. I had a roommate who refused to train her cats off the counters, felt they had every right to be there. Now her cat hobbles on three legs because she stepped on a hot pan.

Unless you're eating food right off the counter a cat will not contaminate your food, especially an indoor cat who is unlikely to have picked up diseases that could jump from the table top into your food. Cats are extremely clean animals and clean their paws often. Sitting in a food container? Yes, obviously wash it first. What disturbs me is shoving a kitten into a food vessel (you can spot which picture I refer to) just for a photo. Don't make your cats pose, they're cute enough doing natural things. If you want them off surfaces, give them a chair or table that is just theirs to jump on.

My cat Jazzy uses the kitchen cabinet in front of the sink as her refuge whenever we have a thunderstorm. When it's over, I open the cabinet to find her sitting behind the trash can and have to coax her out.

I love my boys, but I have a firm rule: no cats in the kitchen unless they are on the floor having a snack. Everything else is fair game.

The water bottle spritz worked very well for me, too. One shot to the side or flank is usually all it takes (avoid the face - that's just mean). Combine that with a verbal command, and on the rare occasion my cat is on the table, I just have to say the command and he's down lickety split.

Kittehs don't always follow the house rules.

Cats are obligate carnivores and need to be up high (read Tribe of Tiger if you're puzzled by this) having house rules is fine but punishing them for their normal instincts is a bit much. At least buy them extra climby things in other rooms so they can feel happy and remember they like to be included in family affairs; they're not dogs but they still become very attached to their guardians.

Makes me wonder how many of you think your pets dont put their butts on your pillows. A little cat hair will be in everything if you own a cat, get used to it or don't get a cat.

EEEWWW?? HOW TOTALLY GROSS.

Keeping my cats off the counters is a lost cause, so crucify me. It's all I can manage keeping them off my ceramic cook top when I am cooking, and afterward when it is still hot forever. I have one cat that can be in the bedroom furthest from the kitchen and hears when I make toast. I even tried stealth, sneaking the bread out of the toaster oven by turning oven off before the "ding" & different butter strategies as well. She loves butter (not toast) and comes running and hops up on the counter for a smidgen. Since this is her only special request ever, I give it to her.

She's leaves the counter immediately if I'm spreading margarine or Nutella. Her disgust is palpable.

Ew ew ew ew ew. No kitties on the counter. I do love them for varmint control though.

@stream13 - I can't think of those things because I don't do them, b/c it's gross. Just like cats in cookware. Not sure why you think we'd be grossed out by one and not the other.

I have two cats, an open plan living/kitchen area and work 9 hours a day - how do you train them NOT to jump up on the kitchen surface in my absence?

Cats are cats, they do whatever they want and then cuddle up to you to make you forget about their cheekiness. That's why we have them as pets :)

Thanks for the kitties. I keep my cats off the counters and out of the kitchen the best I can, but one of them really wants to wants to be in the center of everything, so he sits on the stools at the kitchen counter and keeps an eye on things that way. Problem solved.

Seems to me those who are horrified by these photos are kinda missing the point. As PixieDust so aptly put it: "Kittehs don't always follow the house rules."

How about a kitten in the dining room? http://www.flickr.com/photos/62469023@N08/6500754435/

Ah, the spray bottle myth. It only works if your cat is not infinitely stubborn, ie. catlike. I gave up when my cat, who was SOAKING WET, jumped back on the piece of furniture I was warding her off as soon as the spray bottle was out of my hand.

I wash the counters first if I am going to be preparing anything on them.

I raised three children, and nothing a cat does in the kitchen comes CLOSE to the mess and havoc that human young create daily, all around the house. Nor do human children have an inborn compulsion to wash themselves several times a day, as do cats. Anyone who has ever cleaned up after kids should have acquired sufficient sangfroid to regard a kitten on a counter without hysteria.

All the people who are disgusted, do you seriously not use cutting boards? Food doesn't touch my kitchen counter unless it's been spilled.

My cats end up on the counters fairly frequently. My youngest just looks sad when I spritz her (seriously, I emptied the ENTIRE BOTTLE on her once. And then again. And all she did was give me Sad Kitteh eyes asking why I was doing this to her.) so eventually I gave up. After all, this is what plates and cutting boards are for.

Thank goodness neither of them has any interest in the stove!

Cats will be cats, I just make sure to wipe them down before I start cooking. My cat doesn't climb on the countertop when I'm home, but I'm sure that he's all over them when I'm at work.

Suzy8track . . .

You wipe your cats down before you start cooking? What does that do?

Pet owners may think of their pets as children, but on cooking surfaces and counters?

TOTALLY GROSS . . .

Our cats walk around on the counters (though they're pretty good about staying off the table). It's not such a big deal; the house isn't immaculate anyway, and none of us care too much about germs. We're all extremely healthy, and if someone gets sick more than once every five years, it's unusual.

Magnolia, you're just kidding, right? You know Suzy8Track meant her counters, right?

Everyone who is grossed out obviously doesn't have cats. Too bad for you. Clearly cats make people way more mellow.

Man, cats on kitchen counters are NOT a cute idea!

And I say this as a lifelong cat owner whose cats rule the roost, who sleep on my bed and who go pretty much anywhere in my condo they want -EXCEPT for the kitchen. It's just plain not sanitary and, more than that, not SAFE, for them to be up on kitchen surfaces. If a cat is used to jumping on a kitchen counter, one day he'll jump on a stove in operation, and that will be a terrible thing.

Seriously. Keep your cats OFF kitchen surfaces.

I have two adorable kitties, and an unfortunate layout in which the window above the sink is the one with the widest ledge and looks out on the yard where the bird-feeder is. Trying to keep my cats from meandering over the counter so they can jump up in the window and chatter at the birds was a losing battle from the start, not to mention their penchant for hiding on top of the fridge and batting at the top of my head as I walk past. I do the same as everyone else: wipe the counter before I cook, keep things like cookies and butter closed away, and use cutting boards.

Thankfully, the stove is on the opposite side of the kitchen, so they've never had the inclination to jump up on it.

No. Cats paw through their own feces, then carry that onto your food prep surfaces. That's disgusting. Enjoy eating your cat's feces particles.

No no NO. Not because of the hygeine issue - there is such thing as cleaning, people, seriously - but the SAFETY issues! I shudder to think what might have happened if the skillet I usually use was on the heat when the kitten jumped up on to it!

That first picture is just horrifying. Call me crazy, but I'd rather my cats didn't end up with third degree burns. My brother walking into me with a hot frying pan when I was twelve was bad enough. I don't need to WALK on my arm.

Well, I thought it was adorbz. Especially the orange kitty that looks like he is deeply enthralled in a cookbook. Cats that think they're people- nothing funnier!

personally, i'd rather have a cat's behind touch my countertops (which get cleaned everyday) than my pillow that i put my face on each night (and does NOT get cleaned everday)

those people who have cats and say this article is disgusting are SO naive about where their cats go and what they do when they aren't around.

I hate to play the doctor card but as a physician and pet owner and mother I would strongly strongly advise the people posting here who say that 'cats in the kitchen on the counters are cool, no biggie' to be very careful. Cat feces, and even more so kitten feces can carry dangerous diseases that are particularly harmful to immunodeficient people and to pregnant women. As one can't know always who is immunodeficient or pregnant I would strongly recommend keeping your beloved felines out of the kitchen as much as possible. Our cat knows she is in big time trouble if she gets on the counter (safer for her, and much much safer for us).

It's Wednesday morning and I'm back to look at the Tuesday Kitteh Cuteness. That lil grey guy cracks me up - he knows how bad he is.

It's about time cats start getting a little more love on AT! :)

I think the point of the post was to show cute cats in the kitchen. Which is great. But one person posting, it's gross is sufficient.

Former vet nurse here. I think it is far better to wash first before you cook and just assume your cats were in the counter (how do you know what they did while you were at work?) than to punish cats for jumping up. Both cats and humans can be tested for toxoplasmosis. Not every cat has it. Keep your cats indoors, and if they are counter jumpers, create kitty surfaces for them. This is not like training a dog. I'm sure if millions of people were getting sick from cats on counters, we would have heard by now. Focus on cat safety and cleanliness, rather than on how to punish your cat.

ON the counter. Stupid iPad.

I have four cats and surprisingly they show no interest in jumping on the kitchen counters. They'll go into the cupboards that don't close properly and jump onto surfaces just as high if not higher than the counters. I even have one that we found at Home Depot who'll cry and beg, standing on her back legs and reaching up to the counters as far as she can whenever I'm chopping something. I'm fortunate she hasn't realized she could jump up.

I keep my cat out of the kitchen. I use the canned air by Ssscat right at the door (it keeps her out) and I put her in the bathroom just to be extra cautious when I start a big baking project. I am icked out by animals in the kitchen. Personally I don't want cat hair ruining an experience for someone I am baking for. While I think animals are cute, yes, the first photo gave me issues.

If you keep them out of the kitchen from day one, you won't have to worry about them jumping into the pan you're preheating to cook your food in because from the floor, kitty can't tell the difference. I wouldn't want the poor animal to pull hot oil onto itself.

the pictures are adorable. more, please.

and i agree with emmi - enough already of the same 'oh, its gross' comments. whether you are lucky to share your home with a cat (cats) or live alone, it is just basic kitchen cleaning to wipe the counters. it needs to be done no matter what.

on a side note, we travel a lot around the country and abroad and i can tell from experience that a very large % of women leave bathrooms without washing their hands. taking about hygeine. these are your friends and your family members, these are the people whose homes you visit and share meals prepared by them.
next time you are grossed-out by innocent pictures of kittens, think about what potential disasters people carry on the unwashed hands.
dont know about you, but i'd rather clean my counters.

we have 3 indoor cats who show no interest in kitchen counters. but then, they have no interest in human food. when we lived in france, we saved a wonderful feral kitten who loved to eat and ate everything. walnut cake was his favorite. he would never leave kitchen counters but for the fact that his bowl was placed on a floor. eventually, he learned that food will appear in his bowl on-demand and he lost interest in kitchen counters.

These are all adorable but ew ew ewwwww at cats climbing all over places where food is cooked.

Just have to say, you can keep cats off counters - when you're home. I swear, as soon as we go to bed they're doing dance numbers on the kitchen table, and I'm constantly finding little kittie footie prints on the stove. So, I always put the pan/pot back on the hot burner until it's cool, and I wipe down the surfaces. Little buggers know full well they aren't allowed - and they know full well we're not gods, no matter how much they treat us like we are (when they want something).

Though I have to say, it's that little indication that they know full well what they're doing and that we don't approve that makes me love them even more :-) Fine - I'll wash the counters. No problem.

I'm not really sure how I can train my cat not to go on the counter, because it's not a regular behaviour and it never happens when I'm actually in the kitchen (which has no door). But every now and then I hear a little mewing coming from the kitchen, and discover Mr. Kitteh looking at me quizzically from the counter. I remove him, he forgets about it, and a few months later it happens again. It never happens while I'm actually cooking; he's not actually interested in human food.

However, shortly after I got him, my roommate decided to get some pet fish. She was bringing them up to our apartment when the bag holding them broke, so she scooped them up, dumped them into a bowl of water on the counter, and turned her back for a moment to check her fish tank. The last poor fish was just disappearing down my cat's throat when she looked back.

Perhaps that incident explains why he likes to check out the counter every now and then.

I love these funny anecdotes about everyone's cats/kittens.

There are a lot of people in whose home you wouldn't want to eat if you knew their kitchen hygiene (and those are without pets). People will drag a nasty old sponge across their counters and think they've cleaned. And have you ever seen children helping out in the kitchen - sneezing, scratching, nose wiping? That's gross.

I never put anything directly on my counters. I always use large deli wax paper or a cutting board to prepare food. I also always wash out whatever pot/utensil I'm going to be using, since I do have 2 cats.

BTW, one of my cats doesn't go up on the counter anymore since I made it clear it's a no-no. Of course, when I wake up in the middle of the night because I hear something, it's usually because that darn cat was just waiting for me to go to sleep. They're just too smart for us. :-}

Re: your 2nd paragraph - that problem is with food service employees too. I can't count the number of times I was in the ladies room and an employee walked out of a stall and then just left - NO hand washing! Lots more problems than a kitten on the counter.

The germ-phobia is awesome. I forgot how paranoid people are. Keep it up guys, I love reading these threads.