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Trick or treat

I love my cats. Even when they’re causing me to tear my hair out, I still love them. They are like my babies. No matter what they do or don’t do, I can’t stay mad at them for long. But there’s one behavior that is driving me bananas: they are obsessed with treats. Jack, especially, seems to spend his entire life thinking about treats. Every single time I go into my kitchen, he thinks it’s treat time, and he’s right there with me. He either jumps up on the countertop or he’s underfoot. Mostly, he’s underfoot. Half the time I can’t move for fear of tripping over him or stepping on him and/or falling. This morning is a perfect example. I went into the kitchen to fix my breakfast and nearly fell over Jack six times before I lost my temper and squirted him with water to make him get out from underfoot.

To stop this obsessive behavior, I’ve considered making my cats go cold turkey on treats. But I hate to do that. Treats are a wonderful way to reward them and/or to make something they hate doing more palatable to them. And my vet thinks they’re fine, as long as having treats doesn’t cause the cats to ignore their regular food, which is better for them. Jack and Cleo love all their food. Wet, dry . . . it doesn’t matter. They eat it. And they are at a healthy weight, which hasn’t changed more than an ounce or two in the past year. Besides, why should Cleo suffer for Jack’s obsession?

I’ve also thought about moving the location of the treats from the pantry (where all their cat food is) but remembering how they managed to tear open a package of treats that wasn’t behind a door they can’t open, doesn’t really seem as if it’ll work. No matter where the treats go, they’ll go, too. I don’t think it’s possible to trick them.

Any suggestions? I’ve created a monster.