Great new growth on the top of the canopy

I agree, Cats are much worse! My big guy knows exactly what he gets and when. He gets 5 or 6 little cat treats when I get up, generally between 6 and 7. Some mornings he'll decide around 4 that it's time for me to get up and will start biting my toes - if I tell him it's not time to get up he'll go away for a few minutes and then come back and bite harder...or he'll lay on my chest and purr his loudest, that's what he was doing this morning...he weighs 16 pounds so it's not the nicest... he knows he gets supper when I get home, which is normally around 5pm. If it's getting past 5 and I am in my office down the hallway finishing something up, the yowling starts. I pretend I'm the boss around here, but it's just to make myself feel better...ROFL. Suzan J

I suspect he does this when you're not around because he knows he's not supposed to be doing it. He may also be doing it because he's on the wrong side of the fence, and it's just easier to do it where he's at than returning to 'his' area to relieve himself. You may want to put a pad in the forbidden area as well, since he seems to be able to get to it. That being said, I don't like pee pads and wonder if he was trained to the outside before you got him. You didn't say. If he was, and you are using pads, you may as well say you are retraining him and he may be confused. Regardless........I hope you are taking him outside to run off his energy and letting him relieve himself there. Is that an option? Taking toys away won't accomplish anything. Reinforcing the positive is the way to train him, whether he's attention driven or food driven. You say recently but how recent is that? He may be acting out a separation anxiety or massive change of habit and environment. Have you considered crate training? This is not an impossible situation, but you may have to sort through a lot of variables to work out a useable routine and for sure you will have to invest some time and patience into the solution. The inside fence bothers me when you are not around. I have seen dogs literally hung up on them and dangling when the owners are absent.

I think it might work great, but white is tricky since the white of the countertop won't exactly match the white of the subway tile/cabinets. A very light grey would be probably be easier to match, although I don't know if that color scheme would be as timeless as all white. We ended up going with no backsplash (!!) and just the light grey walls. But I love an all white kitchen - and I think you might have the not-quite matching issue with most countertop color options (unless you go with a darker counter, I guess).