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From: Arjun Ray <a...@nmds.com.invalid>
Newsgroups: alt.cats
Subject: Re: Need opinions about declawing
Date: 1 Jul 2002 02:41:08 -0500
Organization: FUDGE Dispersal Systems
Lines: 38
Message-ID: <6n00iuoes2rtauf58gm4coufb669knl3s1@4ax.com>
References: <HwiS8.3278$ZM3.1115712@news20.bellglobal.com> <20020626110634.28774.00000995@mb-ml.aol.com> <afcrbi$ia1$1@ins22.netins.net> <abDS8.4936$ZM3.1588235@news20.bellglobal.com> <3d1b973d.79278005@news.btinternet.com> <3D1BA38A.81CEA6D6@ellijay.com> <3d1c88f8.141161058@news.btinternet.com> <3D1E740B.B08AC65E@ellijay.com> <c68165b1.0206301001.581abc8e@posting.google.com>
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In <c68165b1.0206301001.581ab...@posting.google.com>,
pri...@user.kingsnake.com (Lyn) wrote:
| Susan Ravan <sra...@ellijay.com> wrote in message news:<3D1E740B.B08AC65E@ellijay.com>...

|> I have a challenge for anyone who really think you have a solution.  
|> I have a customer who has a cat in her family, [...] The cat is now 
|> about two years old, has used a scratchings posts for all this time.  
|> The cat has decided drapery and furniture are more fun.  [...]  Give 
|> her a solution. 

There is no cut and dried solution.  All solutions are based on giving
the cat something that it will *like* to scratch.  

Not what you or your customer would like the cat to scratch, but what
the *cat* will like to scratch.  Some experimentation is inevitable.

| With a little effort on the part of the owner, cats can be trained to 
| scratch appropriately, and/or scratching can be made into a non-issue.  
| But one must be motivated to make these methods work

Right.  Working at it means ensuring that cat gets what it needs.  E.g.,
if it likes rope, don't carpet the post.  If carpet, then chances are
the harder and scratchier it is, the better.  Some cats like cardboard -
so give it cardboard.  Most cats will take to vertical surfaces, but
some like to scratch on floors - so give it something horizontal or
gently sloped.  

Encourage the cat, with praise, with catnip on the surface, with "good
things".  It also helps to place the scratching post somewhere that the
*cat* will like - not an out of the way corner, but within easy reach of
its usual haunts: feeding area and sleeping area(s) mostly, maybe even
the litterbox too.  Multiple posts can't hurt.

And make sure the scratching surface doesn't wobble!  (That rules out
99% of the junk you're likely to find in the average pet supply store
unless you're willing to customize with extra nails etc.)

Bottom line: it's *easy*.