ANSWER:
Glad you asked! We kitties want you to know
that we NEED to scratch! When we wake up
from a nap, the first thing we do is look
for a tall, sturdy, rough-textured spot on
which to stretch up to our full height,
extend our claws and have a wonderful
stretch and scratch. Wow, that feels good!
When our outside kitty friends need to
scratch, there are LOTS of great places all
around – trees!
At the shelter, we cats
find plenty of tree substitutes. We have
tall cat trees and scratching posts, all
nice and sturdy with a rough surface of
wood, bark, or sisal rope (my personal
favorite) to scratch on. People often donate
items to the shelter that their cats don’t
use—carpeted cat condos, scratch pads that
hang from a door knob, and especially short
little carpeted kitten posts. When we try to
lean up against these, they move, wobble,
and sometimes even fall over. This annoys
us! They call these scratching posts? Shame,
shame…
It sounds like your
kitties looked for their tree substitute and
found the only thing meeting their
requirements were (1) tall, (2) sturdy, and
(3) rough-textured, i.e., your furniture.
Since most cats are angels like me, they
don’t deliberately want to cause damage.
They would be more than happy to use
SOMETHING OF THEIR OWN that is even more to
their liking than upholstered furniture,
which is a bit too soft for our taste. The
secret is to isolate your kitties in a small
room with their new post (Cat Angel Network
sells a GREAT one for $35).
The room should have
nothing else a cat would be tempted to
scratch (a bathroom is ideal), and the post
should be LOADED WITH CATNIP! Have a ten
minute play session at the post every day,
using a fishing pole type toy to get your
cats to touch the surface of the post. We
big guys are attracted to the catnip while
the little kittens like the play method (I
myself liked to climb up the post after the
“Cat Dancer” toy in my younger days).
After you’ve seen both
your cats use the post several times over
2-3 days, move the post to a room where your
cats had been scratching before, covering
the previously scratched areas temporarily
with a sheet or double stick tape (sold as a
product called “Sticky Paws”). You can
remove the sheet or tape after they are
consistently using the post in its new spot.
As far as your
four-month-old is concerned, kittens climb a
lot. At that age we are too little to jump
where we want to go, so we tend to climb up
furniture or even our owners’ pant legs!
“This, too, shall pass.” Starting around six
months of age, kittens begin to be big
enough to JUMP to their desired locations
and the climbing behavior gradually
disappears. Get your kitten and his mom used
to nail clipping as soon as possible. This
prevents climbing damage and minimizes
discomfort caused by overgrown nails. Our
cat-loving friends at Cat Angel Network are
experts at nail clipping and offer their
services FREE at the Pottstown and
Downingtown PetSmart store on weekends. I am
told that I live up to my name of “Angel”
during my monthly manicure sessions, and I’m
sure your kitties will learn to enjoy it,
too!
