Saturday, April 18, 2009
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
These are our two cats, Subito (Latin for "suddenly", age 6) and Clio (named for the Greek Muse of History, age 2.5). While they may look innocent, don't be fooled by the sweet picture. In fact, in recent weeks they've conspired to wreck havoc on my house and turn it in to one giant scratching post. What's more frustrating is that they both have excellent taste. Mats and posts specifically designed for their scratching pleasure are deliberately ignored in favor of the really good stuff: the sofa, the chair I just got recovered, the good Oriental rug. Weekly nail clippings have only encouraged them to resharpen freshly clipped claws as quickly as possible to resume their destructive behaivor. 
I'm at my wits' end and now turn to you, gentle readers, for advice. Any ideas short of declawing (which is particularly cruel at their ages, I think)? How do you keep your pets off furniture and your cats from scratching your house to bits? Please help!
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7 comments:
Olivia is falling down on the job! I'll send Beatrice over to review the Dogma lessons. She must remember she has been given dominion over the felines and as a faithful steward must keep them from damaging the domain which she has been entrusted to guard as the DOG in charge.
Yikes! I feel your pain! Since I haven't had a cat since I was a kid I have no advice. Our kitty was de-clawed in the front only and was just fine afterward....good luck whatever you decide. Oh, recently reupholstered furniture getting clawed almost brings a tear to my eye. You poor thing!
Claw caps! When I kept my fiance's cat this summer, I feared for my drapes (the Boy's curtains have these mysterious holes in sets of four all over them and he insists they're not from Sophie's nails but they ARE!) and new furniture, so I insisted she wear the claw caps. They come in a few different sizes and tons of colors, and Sophie's last about six weeks. They just fall off as the nail grows, and then you glue a new one back on. Sophs can't climb or scratch with the caps on, but she still likes to paw at her scratching post.
http://www.softpaws.com/index.html
Seriously, our future marriage would be in trouble already if not for these little babies.
Ah, that's the worst!! We have two clawed kitties as well, and one of them likes to scratch rugs. We tried the claw caps, but I was never dexterous enough to get them on their pesky little claws - our solution is to be really vigilant with a spray bottle. Not the most original idea, but a spray bottle (or little squirt gun) filled with water definitely gets their attention! Ugh, good luck! (Cute kitties, though!)
We had our kitten de-clawed. I was so against it at first, but was worried about her tearing up furniture. Kris found a vet that does a laser de-claw, which is supposed to be more humane. Maybe look into it. It worked for us!
I also had my cats declawed as kittens. I use to think it was horrible but it was worth it. I didn't want my teak bookcases to suffer.
I would try the claw caps.
Ripping out cats claws is rather cruel and selfish. Don't have a cat if your stuff is more precious to you. How can cats ever protect themselves, or climb up from danger should they need to to do so?
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