My cat is a downright pest when I am in the kitchen cooking. It doesn’t matter what I am cooking—she comes out and starts screaming and begging for it. She will attempt to lick the floor where I was just preparing the food, and unless I take the food waste outside, she will knock over the trash to get to it.

The kitchen is big, and she loves to lie at the sliding door staring outside, which I have no issue with. However, she uses that as a means to an end. She walks out under the guise of going to the back door and watching outside, but the second I start cooking, she tries to get me to give her some (I have never given in to her). If anything falls on the floor, she will race me to it, and it makes no difference whether it is meat, veggies, or anything else. If I am cooking it, she is convinced she is entitled to it.

My wife’s cat is much more mellow about the whole thing. The only time she really begs is when I have chicken (my wife says she used to give her a small piece whenever she cooked it, before I moved in with my cat), but she does not beg nearly as much as mine does.

It has gotten to the point that I chase her out of the kitchen, and within 30 seconds she comes right back in. I have a spray bottle full of water that I usually only have to show her and she runs off—but again, she comes right back.

I am hoping somebody can offer me some suggestions on how to stop this behavior. It has gotten much worse in the last few months, and we always make sure there is food down for them before we eat or cook, so it is not that she is hungry—she just wants what I have. How do I stop this behavior?