Adventures in Cat-Training

We recently bought my cat a scratching post. She's been getting older, and goes outside less often, so she had taken to scratching at our furniture. Our old couch was fraying at all the corners where she'd attack it, so when we got this new one a few months back, we used a special kind of double-sided tape to keep her away; the fabric on my piano bench was also coming apart, though now it's been reupholstered.

I've also noticed my cat's claws getting caught in things. Cats, unlike dogs, can retract their claws (well, except for cheetahs), but when my cat stretches out in front of the doormat, she flexes her claws into the fabric to hold herself steady, and finds herself pulling the carpet up with her as she tries to move. Something had to be done.

So we bought her a scratching post. I believe it's the first scratching post we've gotten for her (not including that one that was styled as a door hanger, which she instead knocked down and slept on). It's hollow inside, so she can climb in and sleep (not that she ever would - we're keeping all her toys in there instead), and it's covered with a thick gray carpet, with a soft spot on top that she actually does perch on occasionally, much to our surprise.

It took me a while to convince her to use it, however. At first, when she attacked it, I thought she was attacking the couch, and snapped at her, like I've been trained to do. We finally moved it away from the couch, and I tried to teach her that it was OK to scratch, despite my previous chastisement, but Megabyte didn't seem interested anymore.

And yes, my cat's name is Megabyte.

This computer only has one Megabyte of space!

Someone decided it was time for us to buy some Catnip. Different people have different opinions on catnip, but it's pretty handy for getting cats interested in things. It took us a few weeks to remember to pick it up (the grocery store stocks catnip by the flowers, instead of in the pet aisle, for some reason), but when we did, I sprinkled some all over the scratching post. Her opinion of the thing didn't seem to change.

I checked to make sure Megabyte could even smell the catnip by holding the entire bag open for her. She acted interested, so I assumed there just wasn't enough nip on the post, and I added more. Over the course of that week, the most attention she paid to the post was to rub her head on it, mildly affected by the drug.

Last Thursday, we had a few people over at our house, and we spent the bulk of the days before cleaning the house. Because I thought the small bag of catnip might be considered 'unsightly', I tucked it into the upper level of the hollow scratching post, thinking Megabyte would be hidden in the back rooms (like me) while people were there.

Later that evening, when the house was finally quiet again, I came out to the family room to see half of the catnip from the bag scattered on the floor in front of the scratching post, with the bag lying open nearby. It was obvious by the way the plant remains were scattered that someone (IE, my cat) had been rolling around in it.

Since then, Megabyte's had more interest in that scratching post. Occasionally, I'll see her claw her way up, then poke her head into the window to the second level, as if checking to see if I'd left the bag in there again.

It may not have worked exactly as we intended, but she's sharpening her claws properly and not attacking the furniture, so all's well that ends well, right?