Oct 10, 2016 3 min read

I believe I mentioned recently about getting new furniture for our living room after finally deciding that the old couch and love seat had outlived their usefulness. I may have mentioned the hardware for the recliner continued to stick out into space after the recliner had been retracted. I don’t think I had mentioned the damage to the back of the couch created by my cats, however.

The corners of the couch became the cats’ favorite scratching post. We never seemed to see them scratching, but could tell they had been there based on the new strings of loose fiber that appeared on an almost daily basis. Being that there are several cats living in my house, the destruction became massive in a miniscule amount of time.

In an effort to keep the new furniture from too swift a demise, I have been employing several methods of battle.

First, the couch is misted lightly a few times a week with an essential oil and water mixture. It contains eucalyptus and lemon, which are supposed to deter the cats, while smelling citrusy and mentholated to us humans. It’s actually not bad.

Second, the cats themselves get misted with water when seen with claws on the couch. This harmless irritant works wonders when we are in the right place at the right time. Truth be told, the cats often walk away when they see the bottle, long before any mist comes their way.

Third, line of defense is double-sided tape. A single line of it has been run along the preferred scratching spaces. Kitties don’t like anything sticky on their paws, and this tape seems to be included in that. When they move along to a nontaped area, I revert to method two.

Finally, I bought some cardboard scratching pads to give them an alternative – and approved – area to sharpen their claws. This is now my favorite method, mostly because the cats are simply hilarious to watch when using it.

The scratcher is merely cardboard about an inch thick, with holes and depressions in the top and bottom surfaces. It comes with catnip, which I sprinkle very lightly on it, to attract their attention. From there, the cats do all the work.

They lie on it, chew on it, scratch on it and wrestle over it. One cat will claim it as his, and if another deigns to walk too close, he will bop them in the head for it. Another cat – when bopped – will continue walking as if nothing has happened until she passes his view, and then will quickly turn around and bite his paw. While those two are then wrestling, a third cat will arrive on scene to claim the now-empty scratcher with almost a sneer of victory. The only thing better is when they take off chasing each other through the house, running so fast that their paws move like in the cartoons. (The soundtrack plays in my head.)

We have gone through several of these in recent weeks, as they literally destroy them. I sweep up a sea of cardboard bits several times each day. Sometimes their running around trips me up a little, even. But, I’m not complaining. I’ll just watch for a while, and then go sit down on my perfectly unscathed couch.

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.