I'll be walking and all 4 of my cats will lay down right in front and me and roll over merely because they want attention. I have tripped over them a lot but it's still cute nonetheless.

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[–] swizzlestick@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Persistence, mostly.

Learning the word 'in' and what pointing at the other room/snapping fingers means was the first step. Took a while, but enough picking up/putting down, blocking and gentle scooting got the point home.

After that, get them 'in' and start making food on the counter, not direct to bowls on the floor. When a cat crosses the boundary, stop serving up and put them back in either by command or physically. Be belligerent about it if you need to be. Resume/repeat until everyone's dishes are ready.

When ready, I call the first one in by name and put bowls down. The rest quickly follow.

You may find that the cat with the most bossiness/brains/food drive helps keep the others back on pain of biffing, cause they know intrusion means food delay.

[–] ButteryMonkey@piefed.social 1 points 2 hours ago

Haha that reminds me of one of my house rules, no beefing while I’m making food or I’ll stop and you can wait, and my former cat who just loved food more than anything else was for sure my enforcement.

If the other one made so much as a peep, she’d start wailing on her to shut up.