Jessie Cat at your service here — I want to give you a tip on how to get a cat’s attention when they are doing something that you don’t like. Which of course is a very rare event – cats being bad, you know. OK, so take an empty coffee can and dump a few pennies in it. If you shake the hell out of it when the cat is caught in the act of doing whatever it is you think they shouldn’t be doing, the cat should stop immediately and flee the scene. Squirting the cat with water works, too. But please don’t spank cats or scream at the top of your lungs when cats act up. Hitting and screaming will make the cat scared of you. Soon the cat won’t want to come to you because you frighten them. What if you really need to catch the cat (to take to the dreaded vet, to a kennel, to put into a room because visitors are coming over, to rescue because the house is on fire) and the cat just refuses to come to you when called or hides? Not good. You don’t control the situation – the cat is the boss then. It may take a few times but the cat will realize – “Ah-ha! My human makes a horrible noise shaking that can at me when I [fill in the blank with bad behavior] Maybe I better stop.”
Cats The Boss 