Shmogg and I had reached an understanding and knew where each other's
boundaries lay. This is not to say that we didn't *test* these boundaries
from time to time, but I had a voice and a water squirter to back it up, and
he had a hiss and claws to back it up. Thus we could tell each other to
'back off' when necessary and not really p*ss each other off.

Pickle doesn't even need a water squirter, a hiss or even a loud "no no
no!". Just a "Pick-LE!" and he stops what he's doing. Except for an
experimental tummy tickle which I quickly understood was Off Limits, we
haven't so far had  a problem. Pickle is a pretty smart cat and generally
steers clear of difficult situations rather than 'pushing his luck' and has
settled down pretty nicely in Chez Chapman

Suki is a different matter all together. She doesn't seem to believe that
discretion is the better part of valour and doggedly (cattedly) continues
doing whatever she wants, whenever she wants. Mostly, this isn't a problem
as we're enslaved household. The problem occurs in the few situations where
we disagree about acceptable catly behaviour.

I don't want cats on the table whilst we're eating, and I don't want cats on
the work bench whilst I'm preparing food. Shmogg learnt this rather quickly
and if he decided to push his luck, he'd get a squirt of water for his
trouble. Pickle has the brain power to know to skedaddle quick smart if
caught on the table or up on the kitchen benches and indeed gets out of the
way of Cary if Cary looks like he's about to mob him in a fit of affection.

Suki just hangs around. She hasn't learnt to avoid Cary, but thankfully Cary
is learning to avoid her. She is the official 'naughty cat' in his mind.
Being totally deaf, she is oblivious to yells of 'no' and sudden loud noises
of discouragement. She seems totally unperturbed by having water squirted at
her, perhaps because she has such long fur its more like off a duck's back
than a cat's. I don't think squirting water in her *face* is appropriate,
particularly when somethimes it would be almost point blank (it would hurt,
get in her eyes etc etc). I am getting very tired of picking her up and
placing her back down on the floor, when the first thing she does is simply
to jump back up and continuing just as she left off. She also tends to use
her full claw action of all 18 claws when interacting with us when none is
called for. Thankfully, the claw clippers keep the actual damage to a
minimum, but the usual hiss, "No!" and withdrawing isn't going to work, and
the 'old faithful' water squirter has been rendered powerless.

This is painting a bleak picture, and its not. Otherwise she's a very
affectionate and loving cat. She's far more sociable than Pickle, who likes
to *observe* but not interact. Suki wants to play, wants to cuddle, wants to
be a lap fungus. She is an excellent greebling catcher and there's not a
live q-tip in the place. The only problem is how to set boundaries for her -
she just doens't seem to get the message.

Any ideas on how to discourage undesirable behaviour in a deaf and very
determined (and possibly not real bright) cat?

Yowie