My Abysinian is a very smart cat, he can tell when the battery is dead and he is not at all fooled by the other mats that I tried, this is the one that works, forget the others. I should know, I have lots of cats and got another type of mat from the store, but it didnt work nearly as good as this one. Maybe my cats are just smart and curious, I have 6 of them and not a one will respect an area that has had its scat mat removed. Consequently I have at least 3 of them around the house and am here shopping for more since the little buggers have figured out how to open doors to rooms from which they are banned.
Note to self: Next home will have knobs and not lever door handles.