Cat Scratch Fever

Your goal is to provide something more attractive than the furniture for your Cat to scratch on. Commercially sold scratching posts are cool, and often can look very nice in the living room, but you don't need to go the expensive route. Anyone with a staple gun can make a decent scratching post.

Cats have individual tastes as to the fabric and structure of The Ideal
Scratching post. Most cats like a decent-quality flat carpeting... you can
use remnants or scraps (cheap or free from a carpet store- or see if any of
your friends have carpeted anything recently and have a few scraps left
over). Don't use loopy carpeting or stuff that comes off in tufts when
scratched upon.

Some cats like the sisal-rope-wrapped thingies.... pet stores sell pieces to
hang over a doorknob.

It would be advisable at first to try a fiber/fabric very different from
your furniture, so that the cat will very easily be able to learn the
difference between what is ok to scratch and what isn't. If your cat doesn't
go for the scratching post and continues to scratch the furniture, you may
need to try a fabric similar to the furniture. Try a few different fabrics,
to see if you can find something your Cat likes, before you give up.

Most Cats like the top of their scratching post to be higher than their paws
when they stand on hind legs and stretch up. It also needs to be stable, and
not wobble or tip over when the Cat puts hir full strength into the clawing.
This is the biggest reason why furniture is so tempting- it's big, and it's
stable. They can stretch out and really go at it. Most Cats don't care for
the short commercial scratching posts consisting of a little carpeted pole
sticking out of a base. They are too short, too narrow, and not stable
enough. Your Cat wants something wide enough that s/he can scratch with both
front paws simultaneously - I recommend a surface at least 10 inches wide,
preferrably more like 14. Make it at least 3 feet high, preferably much
higher.

A good scratching post can consist of a board with carpet stapled on it,
screwed flat to a convenient wall. These are easy to make, and good if you
have limited space. (Be careful where and how you place your staples- your
Cat can be injured by catching a claw in a staple.)

If you make a free-standing scratching post of some type, and it wobbles at
all when your Cat claws or climbs on it, you should screw it securely to
the floor. You may also secure it to a wall, if that works. Ceiling-high
scratching posts can also be secured to the ceiling.

If you create a fancy scratching post with ledges, hidey-holes, toys
hanging off of it, etc, it will be all the more tempting for the Cat to
spend time hanging out on it (and scratching it). Cats love to have a big
carpeted ledge in front of a window that they can stretch out on and snooze,
or watch the world go by. If you make it tall with ledges, the Cat will be
tempted to climb it (and incidentally, scratch on it).

Some Cats like to sharpen their claws on a horizontal surface. For these
Cats, you can use the aforementioned flat carpeted board- just screw it
securely into the floor. Or, cleate a more elaborate scratching post that
includes a wide, carpeted base. Other cats like slanted surfaces, like a
ramp.

We made a lovely big scratching post for our cats in one
weekend, with scrap carpet (stapled on with a staple gun), mostly scrap
wood, and a few pieces of wood purchased from Home Depot (only because we
had a very specific design in mind). It was a fun and easy project. We
included horizontal, vertical and slanted surfaces so that the Cats had a
choice of what they preferred to scratch on. A wide ledge under a window. A
boxed-in area for hiding & sleeping. A couple of little openings here and
there through which to peek, and to paw at other Cats. A toy mouse on a
springy-string hung from the underside. The Cats all adore it, and scratch
on it constantly!

You can look on the web or in pet shops to get cool ideas for scratching
post designs.

Praise the Cat (perhaps even with a treat now & then) when s/he sharpens hir
claws on the scratching post you have provided, and rebuke hir (or squirt
hir with a squirt bottle) when she uses the furniture. After correcting hir,
take hir to the scratching post and mime scratching. Drag a string across
the scratching surface to provoke the cat to sink hir claws into it- s/he
will probably get the idea. You may also spray or sprinkle the post with
catnip.

There are commercial sprays & powders that will repel Cats, altho many of
them are not something you'd want to put on nice furniture. There are
plastic mats made to put on couches. You may also use physical barriers.
Drape a sheet or something on the couch while you're away, to make the
surface less attractive so that the Cat will not be scratching away while
you're at work. You can set up pans, pop cans, and other noisy things that
will clang around when the Cat jumps up on the furniture.

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Questions or comments