"This cats scratches my furniture"

Cats scratch. It is their nature to keep their claws in good shape, and they do this by scratching. Sadly, they often scratch in the wrong places.

You cannot "train" a cat not to scratch. Yelling at a cat for scratching the leg of your favorite couch will not make him stop--he will just wonder what in the world is wrong with you. What you can do, is provide alternative scratching areas and reward your cat verbally and with petting when he scratches in appropriate places.

An Appropriate Place to Scratch

There are lots of scratching tools sold in pet supply stores that are meant to encourage scratching. Posts covered with carpet being the biggest seller, but not necessarily the most used. There is really nothing to attract kitty to this post, so if he begins to use it as his scratching pole, you are very lucky.

One of the best products on the market couples a scratching area with a toy and with catnip, which most cats will respond to. It is sold under a variety of names, but the designs are basically the same. The "toy" is circular, with an indented track around the outside that accommodates a ball. The center is made of replaceable corrugated cardboard, with indentations big enough to allow catnip to filter through. The catnip attracts the cats, they swat the ball around the track innumerable times, and wallow on the card board which carries the scent of the cat nip. And they scratch. Most cats lose interest in new toys, but I have seen cats continue to use the cardboard as their scratching place for years. Of course, the cardboard needs to be replaced periodically, and the catnip needs to be sprinkled on every so often.

De-clawing Not Recommended

When faced with scratching problems, many people's first reaction is to have kitty de-clawed. This is a fairly invasive procedure, not to be entered into lightly. It also means that kitty can never--repeat, NEVER--be an outside cat. While there are sometimes valid reasons for de-clawing a cat, furniture scratching is not one of them. It will take patience and perseverance on the part of the human to find a solution to the scratching dilemma, but it is certainly possible.

--Terry Early

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