This is probably a really stupid question and I’m going to go “D’oh!” when I start getting some answers, but this has been a vexing problem for me lately.
I want to start cooking (or at least my pathetic and minimal efforts at same) which means that our electric stove with the flat black surface will now become actually hot on occasion instead of just functioning as another surface to put old mail on. Which means that our cats, who have been known to get up on our counters occasionally (understatement of the year) now might be in danger if they jump unwittingly up onto a hot cooktop.
I tried looking for something to cover the burners with, but “burner covers” apparently are meant to be decorative, not functional, and most of them seem to be made of metal which kind of defeats the purpose.
I don’t want to just leave the hot pans on the burners until they cool, because most of them are Teflon and they start to smell funny. I just want some pads or something (preferably something that won’t slide around) to put over them so the cats won’t burn their paws if they jump up there. Warm is okay, but hot is bad. For now I’ve just been covering the burner with a metal teapot, but I’d like a better solution.
train the cats to stay off the counters and range. overhang cookie sheets and baking pans over the end so that they spill when the cat grabs on them in a leap. tape balloons on the top edge of the counters.
Well, at this point in their lives, training them to stay off the counters is probably not feasible.
The pie plates might work.
The Sssccat! thing probably won’t, since they can jump directly from the floor to the cooktop, so unless it’s actually there, it won’t prevent them from being burned.
As for learning for experience: I love the little buggers. I don’t really like the idea of having any of them hurting their tender paw pads on a hot burner.
I’m thinking wooden platters might work, if I can find some cheap.
Or cut a couple of pieces of 1x10 pine or cedar that you pick up at Lowes to the width of your stove. Or cut smaller ones that just fit over one burner. Keep them leaning against a wall, or between the fridge and the wall, and stick one on top of the burner you’ve been using.
Would the cats be able to move large lids? I have a coil heater on my stovetop, and I sometimes put (concave) lids over it so that the lid is not touching the coils but rather the area of the stovetop around it (not because I have cats, but because sometimes that’s the most convenient place for it). I haven’t felt it but I’m pretty sure it won’t get hot as long as the coils are not actively on. Also, I don’t have cats so I don’t know how tempting or feasible it would be for them to move the lid.
Cut a piece of plywood the size of your cooktop. When cooking, put it on the floor beside the stove. Or put the Ssscat mat on there with the stove off until they get the idea that they don’t want to go there. They aren’t too old to train as long as they’re breathing.
I love cats, but in my household, they are trained within limits to suit humans. After all, who is the dominant creature in this shitpile we call home, eh? No cats of mine are allowed on counters or tables, ever. And while I won’t leave a chicken carcass on the counter to tempt them, they must know their place, and that’s not on the table. If they step on the stove and get a little scorched, problem solved.
In return, they get the coziest spots in the world to curl up in, just lower down.
I found this post with a google search today after wondering the same question, but not for the same reason. I’m frequently cooking many things at the same time and have limited space in my kitchen and it would be useful to be able to use a burner area for twenty minutes or so as stove-top space without having to worry about it burning my dishes while it cools down. I couldn’t find anything, but I asked my friend, who is a chef in the French Quarter of New Orleans, and he told me he has the same problem, and uses 9" pizza stones to cover the burners while he isn’t using them so he can use the space to move things around as they absorb most of the heat while the burner is cooling down, so it won’t burn anything on top of it. I just thought this would be a quick fix for any issues with needing to cover a burner for awhile.
Not directly related, but when a previous cat was still quite young, on her first visit to a cottage, jumped on top of a hot wood stove. Her front paws blistered badly and the blisters broke so she had open sores over most of the pad surfaces. Despite this she seemed unfazed and it was a struggle to try to keep the paws clean until they healed over in about a day and a half. She never jumped on the wood stove again. So despite not wishing any harm to your cats, my experience is that the likely damage will probably be minor.