I have this rule that when the foodtime song plays, those are the only FoodTimes and if cats violate that contract by begging for food near the foodarea, I start following them singung “You still belong to meeee-eeeeee” and get increasingly more intrusive of their personal space while tailing them until they’ve taken initative to shake me off by retreating to one of the designated Sanctuary/Uncle-Zones, miles away from the feedingHole
Kinda like when people follow you in their car and its like bumper to bumper almost but not quite. It works too kinda, haha. I definitely get a kick out of it, some good clean harmless family shenanigans
Also my youngest delights when I annoy and tease her with the fingertrap i get my weed vapor cartridges
I try to do similar for our kitchen but one of mine just lays there and takes it at the ‘line’ between rooms. He is super food oriented so he’ll put up with anything to stay in the area. BTW I also train my cats to do tricks for treats, food oriented ones are the easiest to get to cooperate with that idea.
I also like to go around and wake everyone up midday when I take lunch (I work from home). Helps make them want to sleep, at least a little, at night instead of staying up being noisy assholes.